Blood of the Heart
by AriznGlori
Summary: [AU] In 1641 Europe, in a time of turmoil and upheval, Kagome and Inuyasha journey to Austria to visit their friends Miroku and Sango, thinking to escape their lives. What waits for them when they arrive is something far from escape. Vampires!
1. The Carriage Ride

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Welcome to Blood Of The Heart's first installment. You must review this or I'll be too sad to write. Who wants to miss out on vampires, anyway??? ;-) So…here is my signature smiley for you to enjoy: ('-,-') KITTY! Sorry, I'm high on sweets right now…damn sugar…No don't! I like it too much!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or relate items. pathetic, no? Well, I do have three DVD's…What you have 'em all? I will hunt you down and take them!

Chapter 1: The Carriage Ride

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January 4, 1641

Dear Diary,

I have been sitting in this carriage for hours, looking out the window at endless mountains veiled in snow. The road is narrow and icy, and the driver keeps telling us to be calm. Earlier he joked we might go over the cliff along our right side. I found that not to be funny. I look often across me at my longtime friend, Inuyasha Krischan. He is sitting regally and patiently, as he has made trips like this many times. I suppose being a property-seller of the Holy Roman Empire is most exciting, traveling all around the continent and seeing its wonders, even if both of us were born in war. There seems to be no end to the bloodshed. 

My mother told me not long ago that my father had been drafted, but soon after entering battle was killed. My poor little brother; He is so unaware. My mother broke down before she could tell him. He thinks father is just taking a very long time getting back, as if he traveled as abroad as Constantinople or London.

We are passing many small dells and vales, and have made many rests at small villages along the way. Sango and Miroku had better be happy to see me after all of this. I hate sitting so still, and the scenery bores me to no end. The land is beautiful and fair, but repetitive. The last thing interesting I saw was a carriage of gypsies wandering the roads, a goat prancing on the top. I must say that that was very entertaining until the goat fell off.

Inuyasha breathes steadily. I see his breath in the chill air, and watch his brown eyes scan the country. He runs a hand through his long black hair, and then looks at me. He smiles. His smile is rugged and handsome, and right now my heart flutters. It makes me feel so good to see my friend smile. He speaks. I can sense he wants to, anyway. Oh, I hope he calls me 'Darling.' I love that, you know. I must go now, Diary, or else miss his words. You know I love the sound of his voice. I will tell you more tomorrow.

My Love for you,

Kagome Higurashi

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P.S.,

I know I rarely add one of these, but I just want to mention how cold it is getting. I do hate the mountains. Why can't I go back to Munich? I don't want to complain, but you know me. I feel so out of place, a lady in the rugged mountains of Austria. If there were anywhere I'd rather be than here that is close, it would be Vienna. Why can't it be summer now, God, why? It is too cold here. "Anywhere where roses won't grow, I won't go." I pray for roses, and a pleasant trip. Good luck at whatever you do, if diaries do anything.

Kagome looked over at Inuyasha as she put her red diary down and set her quill back in her bag before closing her inkwell and placing it in as well. He smiled at her. She sat, an uncomfortable look on her face, though she blushed. Inuyasha knew it must be Hell for her to have to sit for so long. It was amusing how she fidgeted, writing incessantly in her diary, smoothing her winter dress with her gloved hands, playing with her ebony locks, looking out the window regularly with her beautiful eyes.

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"Kagome darling, are you excited to see Sango and Miroku?" Kagome nodded and smiled.

"Yes Inuyasha, I am." This was the fiftieth time he asked that question; she tallied the other times. Absently she pulled out her diary and added another tally. She had nothing else to do. "I've missed them ever since they left Munich. Why did they go to Vienna? I know it is the capital, but it is so far away from us. A visit to there and the trip back to Munich will take months for us."

"Not months, dear friend. They only live in Vienna during the summer months, when it is warmer. They moved to the village of Heinrich, down in the Mur River Valley. That is why we didn't go by boat."

"I thought it was because you just think that girls and boats don't go together."

"Oh, I still think that, just like any other traditional sailor; don't you worry. But it would be longer going the other way as well. The Danube isn't very fast out here, and hardly navigable in winter."

Kagome sighed, and looked out the window facing the cliff. The sun was setting behind the carriage, so the scenery in the direction they were headed was tinted gold. Far below, the River Mur flowed, ice along its banks. The windows were frosted, and Kagome nervously wiped it off.

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"Kagome, don't worry. We'll be there by nightfall." Inuyasha settled back in his seat, and closed his eyes, a peaceful expression on his face as he relaxed. Kagome sighed. She was so _bored._ She sat as still and as calmly as she could, for as log as she could. She barely made ten minutes when she had an irritating itch in her throat; she coughed. Inuyasha stirred as if from sleep, but his eyes were still closed, his breathing even. Absently she pulled open the window and stuck her head out. It was snowing lightly, and the sunset was gone, though some light remained. She peered down in the valley again, and then noticed a town. It was full of beautiful little houses, snow-covered streets and gardens, and at its center stood a graceful gothic cathedral with towering spires. She could hear the last daylight bells ringing even from her spot.

"That is the Church of the Weeping Mother," Inuyasha said, his eyes still closed.

"I…I thought you were sleeping," Kagome responded sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I guess the church bells woke you. I'll shut the window."

"Thank you, Kagome," Inuyasha smiled. "The cool air was refreshing, though. The bells are too, in a way." He bent over across his seat to open his window, leaned out, and looked around. He spoke to the driver. "Myoga, how close are we?"

"Not far, milord Inuyasha. The old Schloss die Nachtigall castle is right on the mountaintop just there. See it?" The driver was Myoga Penrod, councilor, secretary, and travel-companion of Inuyasha. He was a short, portly man with a long pointed nose and a funny white mustache. His eyes bulged slightly, and he was almost as bald as an apple. Kagome sometimes called him a blood-sucking leech, since he basically mooched on Inuyasha, but her friend always smirked and said Myoga was "a blood-sucking flea, Kagome. He not only mooches, but he's like a bad itch." That always made Kagome laugh. She was so bored she needed it, but the fact that she would see her childhood friends again suddenly dawned upon her, as the village in the valley grew closer. Kagome found herself giggling nervously.

She hadn't seen Sango or Miroku since they married and left Munich. That was two years ago. _A lot can happen in two years. _Suddenly she wondered what she would talk to her friends about. The only thing newsworthy was the war, and that only seemed to get worse. The emperor was trying to stop the war, but it was a failing effort. Victory seemed very far away.

"Inuyasha, how do you think the war is going?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha had shut his window and seemed to be dozing lightly, but he answered. "Ferdinand III is a stupid person who I'd like to 'bight my thumb at,' if you get the meaning. _I_ would make a better Hapsburg." Kagome covered her mouth in shock. Inuyasha was free-spirited, but free-lipped like _that?_

"You realize that if you said that anywhere in public, you'd probably be seized and beheaded before you could say 'blue goose.'"

"Why would I say that? Oh, all right Kagome, calm down. We're in a carriage, it's snowing outside, we're on the side of a mountain topped by an abandoned castle, and thousands of feet below us is a village full of people who couldn't care less if we went over the cliff. What could happen?"

"You know I hate it when you do that."

"I know."

Suddenly Myoga's voice rang out. "Lord Inuyasha, there is the road down to the village. The other road leads up to the castle. Perhaps you should sell _that_ property."

"Perhaps," answered Inuyasha. "But the only person who could buy it would be a king or duke. All the ones who can afford it are in Vienna, and the castle is too far away from the city for those without a home there."

The carriage turned and headed down the mountainside and foothills on a long, winding road. The lantern and sconces in the carriage wasn't lit, and the darkness outside was deepening. Inuyasha quickly lit it, as well as the four sconces. Kagome chewed her lower lip nervously. Her palms began to sweat, and she felt a sudden chill as the light outside disappeared. The carriage wheels seemed to be rattling in her ears, and her seat shook violently beneath her. Her teeth chattered loudly, partly from fear, partly from cold, partly from the seat itself. Outside, there was a whoosh, as of ominous wings.

"What's happening?" Inuyasha asked to no one in particular. 

The carriage began to slow, yet it seemed to swerve sickly. Inuyasha braced himself against his seat, but not as soon as he was knocked into the sidewall. A large bruise spread across his cheek, paralleling a fresh cut. He had hit a small, lit sconce. Kagome gasped, grabbed a clean hand cloth, and pressed it over his cheek.

"Myoga, control your horses!" Inuyasha shouted.

"I-I can't!" the driver cried. "They are growing frightened! They will rip the reigns from my hands if I try to subdue them! We'll go down the hillside!"

"We can't afford that!" Inuyasha roared, looking out the window down the steep, fog-covered slopes that seemed to fall into oblivion. "Help us, God," he whispered. He didn't look afraid, just startled; he seemed very calm, if not angry. The horses could be heard neighing in fear, their hooves sending sparks along the road. Myoga's cries of commands echoed among the hills, his voice full of fear. The darkness seemed to take shape to Kagome in the form of a shadow blacker than the night, and it didn't help that Inuyasha was repeatedly crossing himself, hands sweating and shaking. His brown eyes were wide.

The carriage jostled the two passengers painfully into the ceiling and then into each other. They both ended up knocked out on the dirty carriage floor as the driver desperately pleaded with God and the horses to let them all live through this trip to the town far below.

January 5, 1641 10:00 AM

Inuyasha awoke when he felt his head throb painfully, and the minute his eyes opened he knew something was wrong. He was lying on the wall of the carriage, right over a shattered window. He quickly sat up, and felt his chest for cuts. There were none. Next he noticed that Kagome's head was lying in his lap face-up. She looked to be asleep, and no apparent injury was on her. Then he noticed that the entire carriage, interior and exterior, was covered in a thin layer of snow. The carriage was lying on its side at the bottom of a hill, apparently having fallen off the road.

Slowly Inuyasha lifted Kagome into his arms, carrying his longtime friend gently. Carefully he stood up, surprised that the carriage door was open, and he climbed out. The horses were off their reigns, though lying calmly next to the carriage's glossy black-and-gold side. The lanterns flanking the door were snapped off, probably somewhere on the long fresh trail their accident made in the snow. The wheels were broken, pieces lying on the ground half-buried.

Myoga lay some twenty feet from the carriage, seeming to have been flung off as he desperately tried to control the horses during the last moments of the accident. He was obviously alive, loud snoring indicating to his condition. Inuyasha snorted. Nothing could kill that flea-like little bloodsucker.

Inuyasha set the girl down on a blanket from one of the horses. Kagome seemed alive and well, and she slept soundly, though the air was very cold. In the distance, the village could be seen, farther south, along the River Mur. He went to wake Myoga. He shook the little man's shoulder and whispered words of torture in his ear until the snoring figure woke, as if from a nightmare. "Oh my Lord! The Accident! Is the lady all right? Is she? I don't know what happened to the horses, honest! They seemed scared out of their wits!"

"Calm yourself, Myoga! You're disgracing me."

"Is the lady alright?"

"Yes. She is sleeping soundly by the horses. They seem placid now. What do you think scared them?"

"Well… the …night." Myoga's answer was too simple. "The horses had been through many nights of driving, and never scared so bad. But the night out here…it seems oppressive and deadly. In the shadows, I swear I saw wolves leaping alongside nightmares. They were howling and biting at the horses' hooves. They seemed to come out of nowhere."

Inuyasha stared at him. "Maybe Sango and Miroku should have visited us…"

"Milord, that would be a great idea. Let's not stay out here longer than we must."

"I agree," Inuyasha said readily. "Come. We will make the rest of the trip on horseback. Gather the luggage, and put it on the sturdier horse. You will ride that one. Kagome and I will ride the other one. Leave the carriage."

The Dream

Kagome stirred. Coldness fell across her. She shivered, and then opened her eyes. But it was still black. _It must be very late to be so dark._ _But even when I look up, or where "up" should be, I cannot see moon, stars, or sky. This isn't right._ She held her hand in front of her face, but couldn't see it. Suddenly Kagome sensed coldness, chillier than the air of the Alps, yet it was a firm presence, unlike ice, but like... 

"A corpse." The thought was thrust so suddenly into her mind, shocking, yet it made sense. The chill had a life to it, or lack-there-of. She sat up, and her head swam violently. She felt like she was going to throw up. Suddenly a cold, familiar voice spoke from the dark void around her.

__

Kikyo…

"Kikyo?" she questioned. The name wasn't hers. She looked around to locate the person who said it. "My name isn't Kikyo, whoever you are." Her voice echoed onward, and she heard her sentence flung back at her several times.

__

Kikyo… come back…come back to me… My Kikyo… 

"Whoever you are, I am not Kikyo." Kagome was beginning to grow frightened. Around her, she could here the whispers of many people, yet they all said the same thing, different tones of the same phrase.

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Wake up, Kikyo. Come back to us. We miss you. KIkyo, come back…

"I told you already: I am not Kikyo!" Kagome screamed as she clamped her hands over her ears.

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Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo… Kikyo….

"I am not Ki-"

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"Kikyo." Kagome turned around and looked up, slowly.

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"Kikyo............................"

"W-what?" Kagome could see someone's outline. It was a man, with long hair.

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"Mine." She saw his face.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

They returned to the wreckage of the accident, woke Kagome, and began the gathering of luggage and packing it on horses. By noon, they were done, but the cloud-filled gray sky did not tell them that. It seemed so much later to the three travelers. As they rode down the treacherous, snaking road, Kagome spoke of what she saw in her dreams.

"I saw a man," she said, "with long black hair."

"Was it I?" Inuyasha asked playfully.

"No, good friend, it wasn't. He wore his hair in a ponytail, and was cloaked in the night itself. His eyes glowed. It scared me so badly I thought I was going to die; I have no idea why, but he was so… handsome and yet revolting. He was calling to me from a castle on a hill…so close he seemed, yet so far away. But it wasn't me he was calling to…not really. Kikyo he said… He held out his hand. I reached out to touch him, and got burned. It hurt me so much."

Inuyasha mulled it over before speaking. " It was a dream, my dear. A nightmare, probably of someone you've heard of."

Kagome shook her head, bighting her lip nervously. She took off a black glove, and showed him her hand. He gasped.

"Burn marks, as if by fire!" He held her hand, kissed it, and squeezed it. It hurt Kagome briefly, but the annoying throbbing went down. "Maybe your hand got in one of the sconces or the lantern."

Kagome shook her head again, biting her lip. "No. My hands weren't anywhere near a sconce when you took me from the wreckage. You told me that yourself."

"Yes, well…maybe it happened during the fall down the hill. That would make sense…" Myoga said.

"Yes, I think that might have happened," Kagome said softly. "Perhaps I hit a sconce, and my hand remained briefly on it."

"But your burn marks are in the shape of a hand. Very rarely would tongues of fire do that," Inuyasha said, his eyes dark and serious. _Maybe I shouldn't have taken her here._

"That is true… It must be from the sconces, it must be," Kagome whispered desperately. "Dreams cannot hurt you; they can't... Can they?"

"No, they cannot," Inuyasha, said softly. "I am sorry if I scared you. It most likely _was_ fire from one of the sconces. When we get into town, we'll get it bandaged."

"A-Alright. I am so sorry about all this. Maybe I shouldn't have come…"

"No, Kagome. I am… glad you came. Really. Don't worry. We'll hire men to clear the carriage wreckage, and then enjoy our stay in Heinrich with our friends."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, my Darling friend. We will have a merry old time down here. After all, Yule is still being celebrated, if not by anyone else than by Sango and Miroku. My brother might even come down to visit briefly with his daughter."

"Really? That would be great. I don't think that I ever saw his wife…"

"Her name…it was Kagura… Kagura Lamarr… before she became Kagura Krischan."

"Was…?"

"She disappeared not long after she gave birth to Rin… No one knows what happened to her. It was like she evanesced…"

"Evanesce? I'm not familiar with the word," Myoga said.

"It means 'to disappear' or 'become as vapor,'" Kagome said.

"Oh…so she just vanished…? Just like that?"

"Yes," Inuyasha answered. "But it is rumored that she fled Munich when she heard of the fighting about to break out there and here, so came back to Heinrich to save her father and get him out of here, but in her haste forgot to tell her husband and her child. She never returned."

"Wait one minute… do you mean to tell me that she was from Heinrich?" asked Kagome.

"Yes. She was actually from a noble family that used to dwell in that old castle before the foundation began to crumble, or so I understand. That is one of the reasons why Sesshomaru is coming to visit: he wants to find Kagura and bring her home."

"Well, if I ever see her, I'll let you know." Myoga said. "What did she look like?"

"Black hair, long but usually in a bun or other style, and unusual ruby-red eyes. She was beautiful, quite regal in fact; she even had a fashion sense that most women envied. It was no wonder Sesshomaru fell in love with her…"

"He is cold, if you ask me," the old man said in his stuffy voice. "He never smiles when he speaks, and even the most special occasions and warm fires don't bring him up to us in happiness."

"Look, I know my brother is somewhat cold and cruel, but how would you be if your true love, destined to marry you, suddenly disappeared and was never seen again, leaving you with a growing child who will ask you one day 'Daddy, why don't I have a mommy like my friend does?' What would you do?" Inuyasha said in a haughty voice.

The old man shut up and bowed his head. "Forgive me, my lord. It was rude for me to question your older brother. But is he not as cold as he looks?"

"Sesshomaru's hair prematurely turned white because of worry for his wife. Those red marks on his cheeks are from clawing away at his own face in frustration and anger. The moon on his forehead is a symbol of his love for her, and he got that tattoo to prove how far he would go in his love for her, even if it were unsafe for his body. He scoured all of Europe, from Amsterdam down to Rome herself, and even Jamestown in the New World and Cairo Egypt to find her. His search took him to the Far East, to the Land of the Rising Sun. He searched through the city of Yokohama, and even went to Paris, in the heart of the Land of the French Kings, our enemies in this war. He checked this village, but couldn't find her. The castle was abandoned, so Kagura couldn't have gone there."

"So she is either dead or in the village."

"Yes."

"I will help him find her…" Kagome said boldly. "None deserve to be alone."

End of Chapter One

A/N: Review, or else. Please tell me this is at least a satisfactory beginning. I'm a desperate young author looking for fans- I mean, um…err…hmm…Wah! I love randomness! **Reviews and _kind_ criticism**, please. I'll be your best friend…. holds up lots of sugar and chocolate, then eats it…if you give me more chocolate and reviews. But first, to leave you all on a lighter note not, some vampire trivia:

**True or False: Vampires can move in sunlight.**

If you're answering, think **carefully**. The truth is pretty cool!

Answer: Achoo!! What? I'm not telling you the answer. Figure it out, do your homework, and stay in school.


	2. The Village in the Valley

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Welcome to the second installment of BOTH. You liked the first chapter, no? I hope so. Love you all! Oops…can't say that without looking gay….,' Please ignore… Anyhoo, I would like you all to know what a dread shadow high school looks like from my POV. Well, enough with random blabber. Time for the disclaimers!

Disclaimer: I am sooo bored. I love Kagome, and Sango, and Kagura, and…girls, and anime, and typing, and I can't have any of it! Wah! My PC's broken! Wahaha o 

And no, I am not rich. Wah! ('-,-') Kool kitty face…hmmm…needs a halo…

Chapter Two: Village in the Valley

The cold air was bighting as the day wore on, the warmth of a carriage gone from the three travelers and the horses they rode upon. The sun sailed on continuously through a muddled gray sea, its light shimmering faintly in the overcast sky.

"The snow here… it does not glitter…" Kagome said softly, watching her breathe mist before her face, as though half-awake. She must have been, either at or in intense thought. Her eyes were dull and half open, and she slumped forward in Inuyasha's arms, as he held the reigns from behind.

"Well, should it glitter with such a lack of sun? It does not mean the land is evil, as you think it to be; just forsaken," Myoga answered irritably. The wind gusted suddenly, sending loose snow up like dust. Myoga shuddered, and whimpered a small, unheard prayer. The old man was having a bad time, and his horse was tiring under the weight of his girth and the luggage. Myoga was getting saddle-sore, and had lost a valuable amulet that seemed to hold great value to him in the accident. He realized it only an hour prior.

"My amulet!" he had wept. "My precious amulet. Banisher of evil in a land of wolfish nightmares! My amulet has gone!"

After a while he had calmed himself about it. The matter was, in fact, a thing of utter stupidity. "A blood-sucking flea, Kagome. What did I tell you?" Inuyasha had said angrily after the man requested to go back to the scene of the accident and search for it. Now the journey was in relative peace, and the three were just reaching the outskirts of the village.

Heinrich now rose before them; its dull but quaintly charming houses were standing in impressive rows along dreary roads, the remnants of an old battlement fringing the farthermost farms along the outskirts. Several were actually outside of the wall.

"I think I know why Sango and Miroku moved out of Vienna. This village seems rather isolated from the world," Inuyasha observed, gazing at the lofty hills and mountains flanking the village on three sides, the fourth being the River Mur itself. "The possibilities of a part of the war reaching this place seem highly unlikely. It would be horrible for children if it came, and you know how many those two are likely to produce."

"If Sango allows Miroku to get anywhere near her."

It was a private joke among the three. Miroku had been courting Sango for many months before their marriage, and he was a "very polite and dashing" pervert. The two had obviously been madly in love with one another, but Miroku's amorous attentions on many women in Munich had made the possibility of marriage seem very distant. The wedding, when it finally came, was absolutely the talk of the city, and half of the most influential people in the Holy Roman Empire had been invited. Few came, though. The wedding was a gay event nonetheless.

Miroku's father, once a rich and powerful nobleman from the city of Augsburg, funded the wedding, despite the tradition that the bride's family always pays. The celebration was on a large hill overlooking the city on a bright Sunday morning. The married couple had left on throne-like chairs seated atop a grand carriage, and then a great parade was staged on a nearly abandoned street on the city's edge, though many people turned out for the joyous event.

Inuyasha was the best man, and Kagome was the Maid of Honor; she even caught the bouquet. Sango herself found descendents from France and Rome, a diverse family tree that gave her exotic beauty. For a while Kagome was very jealous of her best friend, but when she had received overwhelming attention from many gentlemen when she turned fifteen, she almost despised her good looks, but couldn't help but feel blessed. Inuyasha, however, saw things a bit differently. His lady friend was aesthetically pleasing in many ways, her beauty soft and not overwhelming. She was like a delicate silver bell, a pale flower unappreciated for its gentle beauty.

"Where is Sango and Miroku's house?" Kagome asked, looking around the town. A few people were out, watching the horses trot by. Most of them were headed toward a large open square surrounded by a medieval collection of buildings blended with graceful Gothic constructions complimenting the great cathedral at the center of the town. Shops and collections of homes were more frequent closer to the cathedral, as though not willing to go out of the safe haven the great high building provided. Next to the cathedral were a large convent building, and a tavern across from it on the great square. People now began to crowd the streets, though it seemed like minor traffic compared to the bustling Munich and its neighbor, Augsburg.

"They could live anywhere in this mess," growled Inuyasha, irritated. "You would think that they would be out waiting for us."

"I think that we should check in at the tavern," suggested Myoga.

"Dear Lord, Myoga, you came up with a perfectly logical and simply fool-proof plan," Inuyasha said in slight shock. "I only hired you because you're a living almanac."

"Thank you, my lord… I think…"

"Alright. Let us hurry up. My hands are burned and at the same time numb. I want to see my friends again." Kagome was agitated now. She felt her hands throb unexpectedly, painfully under her glove.

"Sure darling," Inuyasha said with a dashing smile, getting off the horse and guiding it to the tavern while Myoga's horse trailed behind. "Kagome, from down here you look like the Virgin Mary on her way to Bethlehem."

"Are you calling me fat? I am not pregnant, and I hope I don't look it. If you're implying anything, I'll strangle you and suspend you from a gargoyle on the church's left bell tower."

"Good luck with that. I'm pretty heavy, and I doubt you could carry me up to that dizzying height. Not to mention coldly suspending me and watching as I slip away to inevitable death over a hundred feet below."

Kagome made a face. "I hate it when you do that. It takes the fun out of everything." She then stuck her tongue out at him, and in response he bit his thumb at her. She gasped, blushed, then quietly fumed where she sat while the horse was led to a post and tied up by a half-frozen trough of water.

She slipped easily out of the crude saddle, and stood on the stone-paved path leading to the building, from which the reeking smell of ale came from. Inuyasha escorted Kagome through the wooden door, over which a wooden sign said The Fox Den and into the smoky bar, followed by Myoga, loathe to leave the two.

The walls of the room were a blend of stone and brick, not eclectic but a blend of remodeling and recent construction. Oil lamps hung from the ceiling, and torches with greasy smoke burned in their holders against stone walls. Inuyasha calmly walked into the slightly brawling place, up to a bar crowded with men of all statuses drinking and fighting. The bartender, a robust middle-aged man with pointy features and fox fur hair, rushed over to him, a surprisingly clean cup in his hand, ready to be filled.

"What do you want, my fine sir?" The man asked, eyeing Inuyasha closely. "You from Munich, right? Awful far for a business trip, don't you think? You're ruffled up? Did your company have an accident on the way into town, or something?"

"Nothing, yes, it's for pleasure, a little, you don't want to know," Inuyasha said, answering all of the questions. The bartender laughed. It was deep and rich, making the man seem all the stronger.

"I like a fellow who can talk like that," he said after calming down a bit. "So why are you here, if not for my famous beer brews? You're not after my wife, are you?"

"Hardly! Not to be rude or anything, but I have my own love interest." He discreetly glanced at Kagome so she couldn't tell, but the bartender got the point. "I'm actually looking for some friends of mine who live in town. They are Sango and Miroku Josif… I thought you might know of them. They came out here so Miroku could apprentice to his stepfather in Vienna. He is going to be-"

"A theologian, or something along those lines. You want to know where he lives, yes? It is a large house, of brick and marble, with a great garden of dark flowers still in bloom. Sango is surprisingly good at gardening, keeping the plants alive throughout our harsh winters. It is down south of the cathedral, next to another tavern, our competition. I think it is called the Wolf Den. But no one on the town's northern side goes down there. Miroku doesn't either. I know him, not as well I should, but I do. His wife is a spunky gal with quite a spark in her." Inuyasha thought to himself _Definitely Sango_.

"She gets along with my wife just fine," he continued. "Smart as a whip, the pair of them. Women deserve a lot more credit in society, let me tell you."

"Thanks for the information," Inuyasha said, paying the man.

"What is your name?" the bartender asked.

"Inuyasha Krischan."

"Really now? Are you by any chance related to Sesshomaru Krischan?"

"Yes. He and I are brothers."

"You're the younger one, I see. Don't look a day over eighteen, but your brother just keeps getting older every time I see him. Sometimes wonder if he's losing his mind, the poor fellow." The bartender sighed.

"Hopelessly in love with Kagura," he said, "and then the girl disappears on him. Not like her at all. He came in here, not more than six months ago, ranting about a sword called the Wolf's Fang, or something like that.

"By the way, Inuyasha, I am Leon Orlandus. My wife, Victoria, is the waitress over there. We have a son, Shippo, somewhere around town. Runs wild with a group of friends, causing minor mischief and the like. He has a job as a mail deliverer, but so little mail we get in this town that he works mostly in the summer, handing out a newspaper. Tell him hi if you see him around town, and to be home before dark."

"I will do that. While we're on the subject of Kagura, do you have any idea where she might be in this town?"  


"Most I can figure is at that huge castle on the mountain to the north. Her father was living there for a while, but died nine years ago."

"So Lord Lamarr was dead for a year before Rin was born?" Inuyasha raised his thick black eyebrows.

"Yes," Leon said softly. "We are very concerned. He died in summer, when the passes were open. News of his death reached Munich long before Rin was born, like you said. What I want to know is why the woman supposedly came back here so long after her father was dead, and not sooner. Makes no sense."

"Sounds like everyone in town knows of this."

Leon chuckled a little, but his laugh held no humor. "It is one of the strangest scandals in all of the Empire. Out here, our town was actively involved in the rumors, so our residents seem to take everything they here about it to heart. There are so many theories around here that if you'd listen to what everyone in here is talking about, it's why Kagura disappeared. Rightful heir to the county of Heinrich, and married to a powerful lord from Munich; they are like royalty to us."

"Any advice on where to get information? My friend wants to help find Kagura."

"Try the convent. They seem to know everything, yet they never leave their buildings." Inuyasha thanked him and turned around, but quickly remembered the bandages that Kagome needed. "Sorry, Mr. Krischan, but no tavern in these parts stock up first aid. Try the doctor's office just around the corner. Oh, and one last bit of information before you go," Leon said in a deadly serious voice. "Don't go out after sunset."

"Well, I got some information on where Sango and Miroku live," Inuyasha said, "as well as a whole lot of gossip that could keep Munich talking for days."

"Did you get me bandages and ointment?" inquired Kagome.

"Sorry darling, they do not carry any of that type of thing at the taverns around here. We need to get to Sango and Miroku before nightfall, at any rate."   


"Okay. Where do they live?"

"South of the cathedral, next to another tavern."

"They live next to a tavern? Isn't that dangerous?"

"No one here goes out at night, Inuyasha replied. "That obviously means that people don't have enough time to get drunk."

"Well, that's conveniently safe."

__

January 5, 1641

Dear Diary,

A night has passed since I last wrote to you, and during that night, many strange things happened to us. The first thing was the night. I am going faster than usual, Diary, so please try and keep up. The night had swallowed us, and the horses that drew our carriage went mad. They ran and swerved the carriage until it fell off the hill in an accident. Inuyasha and I were knocked unconscious, while Myoga himself was thrown by the impact with the ground thirty feet, according to my friend. Inuyasha and I were mostly unharmed, save for bumps and bruises, some cuts on Inuyasha's part, and burning on my part.

Next was my unusual dream. People were calling me 'Kikyo' and a man came up to me, and held out his hand. He scared me terribly, yet I wanted to go to him. I touched his out-held hand and was scorched, and the burning on my hand was in the shape of another hand, like it was gripping me. Then, when we came here, Inuyasha informed me that the taverns do not stock medical supplies! I will have to wait until we get to Sango and Miroku's winter house. Oh, I cannot wait until the vacation really starts. Thanks again, Diary, for listening to me.

With all the Love in my Heart,

Kagome Higurashi

The trio and their horses wandered around the huge cathedral, its graceful designs and elaborate carvings blanketed in silent white snow. The windows were wide and many, convincing them that it must be cold inside. They had no time to find out, though. They made it around the cathedral as the sun began its set. Following a wide road lined with bare black trees, they found the Wolf's Den, nearly abandoned during its last hour of business before sunset.

Next to it, sitting on a wide acre of flawlessly manicured land draped in snow, the brick and marble mansion of the Josifs. Its roof was steeped high, like all of the roofs out here, but was especially tall, foreboding except for the snow that graced it. Beautiful trees, unusual in that their leaves were still full and green, dotted the lawns in eye-catching spots, surrounded by fountains and flowers of brilliant colors, all in bloom, making the setting incredibly surreal.

"They must be doing very well," Kagome said bluntly. "That's a spectacular property."

"Leave it to Miroku to make a good investment," Inuyasha replied. Kagome shivered. Inuyasha gave her his black cloak, which draped over her so far it covered any hint of her dress beneath. The horses trotted up the flagstone circular drive, and Inuyasha hopped off to hike up the marble stairs to the wide columned porch. He stopped in front of the tall, heavy bronze doors and knocked with a matching bronze knocker.

The doors were flung open wide, giving Inuyasha quite a start. Miroku stormed out, yelling "Out of my way!" and rushed from the property. The doors were left open, Inuyasha's hand still raised to knock with the knocker. "What just happened?" he asked in wonder.

Sango appeared in the doorway, her shape looming in the golden light behind her. "Be careful, Miroku!" she called. Just then she seemed to see Inuyasha. "Where have you been?!" she cried. "We've been worried sick all day!"

The sunlight disappeared.

"Get in here now. NOW!"

Silently Inuyasha obeyed he commands; Myoga and Kagome followed suit, hopping off the horses and heading inside.

The doors closed a second later, leaving the horses out alone.

Sango led them into a large castle-like entrance hall, a large staircase swooping up to the second story. She then went through a pair of doors on her left into a large library that functioned as a parlor.

"Sit down, please," Sango said, gesturing to a seating area by a roaring fire made of two couches, a coffee table and four overstuffed chairs. Kagome, Inuyasha, and fat old Myoga managed to sit only on one couch.

"Spread out and make yourselves comfortable," Sango said, and the group did. "Let me go get some tea. Wait here, please." The group waited for no more than ten minutes, during which Kagome removed Inuyasha's black cloak and gave it back to him. "Well, you're probably wondering what Miroku is doing, right? Well first, tell me why you are late," Sango said when she returned with tea and crumpet setting down the silver tray on the coffee table.

Kagome started, desperate to talk with her friend. "Our carriage crashed last night. We had get here by horseback, and it took us forever. We stopped at the tavern to find directions to your house; _Myoga _lost them halfway here. We also tried to get some bandages for my burnt hand, but the bartender said that no tavern in this part of Austria carried any." She drank a deep gulp of her honey-filled cup and gobbled down a few of the crumpets.

"Oh my! I'm very sorry…" There was a pause during which everyone ate and drank a bit. "Did you lose anything _besides_ the directions?" Sango asked after finishing her own cup and pouring herself a new one. A hint of a smile pulled at her lips.

"Shus' my amulet," Myoga grumbled through a mouthful of the excellent crumpets.

"You seem to lose everything, don't you, sir? Well, it does not matter; amulets don't work here…" Sango warned. "Magic is considered sacrilegious; nothing like amulets or any trinkets of the sort are allowed anyway." There was another long pause during which Inuyasha and Myoga had silent debate over who would get to sit in the large armchair in front of the fire. Inuyasha won.

"Miroku is out looking for a missing child, you know: Shippo Orlandus." 

Inuyasha sat up straight at this.

"He was reported missing by his mother not an hour ago," Sango continued, unaware of his reaction. "If anyone gets home after dark, they might as well be dead. But I knew Shippo; he was an amazing youth, incredibly smart and agile with a wicked sense of humor; he was always home by mid-afternoon… To be frank, I am quite concerned." Sango let out a small sigh. "This is the first time a child might have disappeared…usually it is the young women." She sipped her tea again, this time more deeply, wrapping her delicate hands around the cup, as though trying to absorb the warmth.

"Miroku is the only one in the town allowed out after dark, since he knows all about… _them_. He helps to find the missing and bring them to their homes. I'm very proud of him. He's helped many people around town escape _their_ grasp.." The group of visitors began to ponder who '_they'_ were.

Sango then eyed Kagome's baby blue winter dress. She stood up in sudden fear, dropping her cup to the floor, shattering it; backing to the bookshelf-lined wall in a hurry, her hand across her throat; she yelled, "Take it off! No bright colors!" Kagome stared at the girl in gaping shock. Just then Kagome noticed Sango was clad all in dark colors, black and brown, and the dress she wore was not attractive, especially in the dancing shadows that crossed her. "Sango, what happened to your winter dresses? The bright ones we got together in Augsburg before the wedding?"

"No colors that are bright are allowed in this place. Haven't you looked around the town? No bright colors. Not on clothes, not on houses, not on anything! Even the red of the house brick is dulled! Don't you realize the danger? Do you? Hmmm?!"

"NO! What danger?" the three visitors asked in unison.

"Nothing that stands out is allowed in Heinrich!" Sango practically wailed, pulling her hair in wild frustration.

"Why?" Inuyasha asked steadily, gritting his teeth in annoyance.  


"Bright colors attract them," she whispered fearfully.

Just then, the sound of the front doors being thrown open echoed through the silent house.

End of Chapter Two 

A/N: Hello again. This is a shorter chapter than the first, but hopefully just as good. As for the quiz last chapter, the answer is **vampires can move in sunlight. **Read _Bram Stoker's Dracula_ or watch the movie. It tells the original story of Dracula (he _could_ move in sunlight!). I personally love the movie. The plot rocks! About the color thing: Vampires are supposedly attracted to their victims by their beauty, their blood type, and the color of their clothes. The idea is a little Buffy-based, but it makes sense that in all the vampire movies, the victims wore bright (to an extent) clothes and were hot. So stereotypical, no? Reviews please!

New quiz:

If you like the plot so far, say "I!" Then, answer why.


	3. The Restless

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Hello, all. This is the third installment of Blood of the Heart. I hoped you guys and gals liked the last chapter. It's going to be hard to write and update now that the school year is back, and I'm in a lot of Honors and GT classes. Oh well, at least I have year-round Art 1. Yay for art! On that note, yay for anime! Can I get an amen? How about a round of applause? , Will you do my homework? ," Ahem…('-,-')

Moonshine alcoholic beverages illegally imported by the citizens who were denied them.

Disclaimer: If I owned the Inuyasha franchise, I'd be really rich. And famous. And envied. Did I say rich? And famous? And envied?

Chapter 3: The Restless

The echo of the doors shocked everyone in the room, and Kagome jumped out of her seat. "We have to leave this place!" she cried. "There's no logical reason for staying in this accursed town!" Fearing the worst, she ran to Inuyasha, and he held her in her fear.

"No fear, Kagome. It's just Miroku," he said calmly. Sure enough, Miroku appeared in the open doorway.

"Sango!" he called. His voice was soft, depressed. Sango rushed to him.

"Miroku!" she cried. "Are you all right?" Miroku nodded in response. "Thank goodness! Where is Shippo? Is he all right? Did you find him?" Miroku gulped.

"I…I found him…" he said uneasily. "But he was gone from the world of the living. I saw him in an alley two streets down, crouched over a dead cat, drinking its blood." Sango put a hand over her mouth, and backed away, looking ready to vomit or faint, or both. "I ran to grasp him, to purify his body of the evil," Miroku continued softly, "but he leapt away lightly, and threw blue fire at me, screaming in Latin. I was unable to understand him… I couldn't get to his parents, either; their house is already being patrolled by the wolves…I'll have to tell them tomorrow."

"Oh my God…" Kagome shuddered in cold-blooded horror. Miroku had to break the bad news to the bartender and his wife. She had seen them and heard the man, Leon, talk about his child. _We have a son, Shippo, somewhere around town. Runs wild with a group of friends, causing minor mischief and the like. He has a job as a mail deliverer, but so little we get in this town that he works mostly in the summer, handing out a newspaper._ "What happened to the poor boy?"

"The vampire…it corrupted him," Miroku said gravely. "Over a long period of time, too. This night, I suspect, Shippo was finally baptized… with the vampire's own blood… What will become of him, none will know…" his voice trailed off.

"Oh my God…vampires…Oh my God…" Kagome started to hyperventilate. Her eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.

"Kagome, please Darling, just calm down, all right? Everything will be fine. We'll leave as soon as possible," Inuyasha said. Myoga was still gobbling down crumpets, only now in fear and not hunger.

Miroku turned to look at the visitors. His once bright purple eyes were now dulled with pain and grief. His demeanor was declining into depression, his strong body deteriorating with the work he was now doing. Whatever that was. His long black cloak was lightly dusted with snow, and a cross of silver hung from his belt.

"You cannot leave," he said emotionlessly. "I won't allow it, and neither will he." With that, the once happy, perverted young man turned from them and walked into the foyer, and up the sweeping staircase, his cloaking billowing behind him. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Myoga looked at Sango in utter shock at Miroku's strange behavior.

The poor woman in front of them seemed to collapse under all that happened to her; things unknown came pouring out of her like water, and she wept in disgrace and misery. Kagome then pulled herself together to help her best friend.

"Dearest Sango, it's all right," she murmured, holding her weeping friend in her arms. "Shhh… it's all going to be made right," she spoke, the confidence in those words surprising everyone. Sango continued to weep, shaking her head as her friend held her close.

"N-no, Kagome…it… won't… ever… be… all right…" she said between sobs. "Ever…"

"Why?" Kagome asked softly. "Why won't it be all right?" she ran her free hand through Sango's dark locks, surprisingly finding a few gray hairs.

"WE…CAN'T…LEAVE!"

"Why, Sango? Why?"

"B-because…" her voice trailed off.

"Because?"

"The snow… and… the magic, and…the…monsters! The… passes… don't …open till… summer…"she gasped.

"But we got in," Myoga pointed out. Kagome nodded in agreement with him. Inuyasha followed suit.

"That's just it!" Sango wailed. "We… can't leave… until summer. You can come… in winter, but not leave!"

"Barriers of magic, and monsters…" Inuyasha said in a creepily calm voice. "You can come in, but you just _can't_ get out, no matter what you do… until summer… This place really _is_ cursed…"

"There… are signs," Sango hiccupped. She sat up straight, and softly whispered a creepy poem that recounted a few signs they had noticed.

" '_The Snow shall not glitter,_

The sun shall not shine,

You'll be locked here all winter,

And then you'll be mine.'

"He wrote that on every door in the town over twenty years ago, or so the villagers say… Ever since then… he has claimed the village as his own. He rules us unofficially… we cannot seek help, for he can lock us in this valley and freeze the river if he wants. He guards us with his minions, and keeps us imprisoned in our homes until summer comes. Then, and only then, his power is harder for him to use, harder for him to keep us in or out without drawing the attention of the Empire… But still we cannot speak of it, for his army of demons watch us and pursue us, no matter where we go…"

"Oh my dear Sango!" Kagome exclaimed. She hugged her friend tightly. "No wonder you are stressed! When summer comes, will you leave with us?"

"Yes," Sango said. "Miroku and I count the days until the snow melts. But we are never sure. Come. Let me try to keep your minds off of what lurks beyond our walls. Let's go to the kitchen and eat some more food. If I know Miroku, then he's already in the kitchen pigging out on our hickory-smoked roast ham."

"Ooh, that sounds so _tasty_," Inuyasha said, his mouth watering. Kagome looked at him like he was an idiot. She slapped him upside the head. "Ouch!"

"Did you hear anything she just said?! Don't you feel the least bit scared? For us if not yourself? Inuyasha, sometimes you are such a jerk!" she cried in fury, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring in the opposite direction.

"I am not!" the young man countered. "I am just listening to Sango and trying to keep my mind off of what lurks out there!" he pointed toward a tall, narrow glass window, beyond which glowing red eyes passed. Kagome just about had a heart attack at that point. "T-to t-the k-kitchen!" she cried, her sudden change not unexpected. Myoga took off ahead of them, and the rest followed him. The flea-like man, using his nose, found his way into the kitchen with no difficulty. He plopped himself down at the linen-covered kitchen table, and watched as Miroku, just as Sango predicted, began to cut the ham.

Unlike what Sango had said though, there were plates laid out for the guests, and Miroku began putting pieces on the plates. Wine glasses were laid out, and a bottle of White Zinfandel and a bottle of Beaujolais, exclusively from France, were set out next to a bowl of various colored grapes, apples, and raspberries. Also on the table were a wheel of provolone cheese from the Swiss Alps, and a large bowl of salad.

"What's the occasion for the moonshine?" Inuyasha asked.

"Our friends' safe arrival," Miroku replied with a smile. "Sorry about my behavior. I am under a little bit of stress."

"As am I," echoed Sango, who sat herself at Miroku's side. "Sorry we didn't tell you not to come, but we didn't know about the vampire until we came here, and we couldn't have a message sent out until next summer. So, we anticipated your arrival and prepared."

"That's very nice of you," Kagome said politely. "Inuyasha, come and sit." Inuyasha eagerly obeyed, plopping himself down across from Miroku, Kagome next to him. Myoga was on his other side. So the three visitors sat facing the hosts, waiting for what would come next; at least until Inuyasha just decided to dig in again. But before he could sink his fork into the juicy ham, Miroku lashed out with his own, whacking Inuyasha's hand, causing him to drop his fork. "SAY GRACE FIRST!" Miroku yelled, then immediately was calm again.

The outburst was so sudden that no one was sure it really happened. But just to be on the safe side, they all folded their hands. Miroku led them in prayer:

"Thank you O Lord, and lease Thy gifts which we are about to share through Thy bounty of Christ our Lord. Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly grateful. Guide us in Thy works, and help us to receive eternal life within You and protection from evil under Your wings. Amen." A round of amens, most from Sango, followed the strangely long prayer. They then quietly began to eat their dinner as the beasts that probed the streets of the night-enshrouded village gazed hatefully at them through the windows.

__

January 5, 1641

Dear Diary,

__

Sorry to interrupt you, but I had to update!

We arrived at the _home of the Josifs not too long ago, and ate dinner. I learnt that the son of the bartender who couldn't give us bandages earlier today was found, undead, in an alleyway just after sunset. Yes, you heard what I said: undead! I am very scared, Diary. That is why I am updating. Miroku has become a monster, like a man left alone with his thoughts for too long. I know now that he helps people escape the dreaded demons that I now know patrol the streets at night. I saw one, Diary. It had red eyes, and stared at us through the windows. I didn't know if it was dead or not, but it reminded of the walking corpse-like man in my dream. His eyes were the same shade of red._

I am in one of the three occupied guest rooms right now, by myself on the large bed. It is cozy and soft, and if I don't keep writing, I fear I'll fall asleep. Miroku put crosses on the windows and the handles of the doors, saying they will keep the room demon-free. I tried to hide how scared I was by joking that Inuyasha will never be able to get in. But I am scared nonetheless. If not by the demons, then by that dream I had. After dinner, Sango tended to my hand, remedying it with herbs and bandages. She asked my how got burnt in such an unusual pattern, but I just said that I thought I got it in the crash, but I have a feeling that it **was** from my dream. Sango warned me not to open the windows no matter what, and to never invite a stranger into the house or anyone who hesitates at the door, for that matter. She says vampyres will not be able to come in unless you invite them. I hope don't take a familiar form.

Lovingly Yours,

Kagome Higurashi

Kagome closed her diary, put her writing supplies back, and finished unpacking all of her clothes and putting them into beautiful dressers and trunks. She rearranged parts of the room, feeling that since she would be in town for a while, she might as well be comfortable. She blew out all her candles except one, just for extra light, and tucked herself into the huge, soft bed.

But she did not sleep. Nor could she.

She stared around her room, at the silver crosses in frequent patterns everywhere, even on the door to the washroom her room shared with Inuyasha's. She looked from her bed out the window, which viewed north to the castle. She stared at the structure, sitting on the top of the mountainous hill, the arches of aqueducts gracing the deep velvet sky around it.

It was beautiful, with many fanciful towers and turrets, jagged against the sky. And, as she stared at it, she noticed something odd. In the highest room of the tallest tower, there appeared a small pinprick of light. _Wait,_ she thought. _The castle has been abandoned for many years, right? So, it makes no sense…Why would there be a light at the top of the tower?_

"Hmmm…Moonlight reflecting off of a glass window, most likely. It can't be anything serious," she told herself, trying to relax, but growing all the more anxious just the same.

__

Admit it, you silly girl: you know there is someone…or something… up there…something that shouldn't be. There is someone there, in that big old castle… Someone who is poisonous and terrible, ruinous and ruined...

"The vampire," she breathed in sudden, petrified trepidation.

__

And someone else, too… Lost, but desperately sought after. Searched for endlessly…a lost mother… You know who it is…Think carefully, the vow you made… remember to search for…

Then it hit her.

__

"Kagura," she whispered. _Yes, that's it! Kagura, wife of the brother of Inuyasha; it must be her!_ Then, as she watched, the light sputtered out, at the same time the last candle behind her did. _It was just a reflection, _she thought. But somehow, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was a light, as well. It was just… too… _real_…

She rolled over in her bed, facing the wall where the door to her room was. Light filtered through under it, but then was snuffed out as the sound of Sango's light footsteps echoed down the hall. She shivered in the darkness. No moonlight pierced the clouds outside; no star was visible in the elegant window.

She had the shivering thought that something out there was watching her; over period of long seconds, she convinced herself that a pair of red eyes were glaring at her from beyond the glass.

The eyes, once there, wouldn't go away. She stared at them, scared out of her wits, and they stared right back. Beady and small, their powerful glare held her enthralled, captivated in the darkness.

But then she saw one eye blink, and then the eyes were revealed to belong to a bat, hanging upside down from a tree branch outside of her window. She felt a surge of relief when the bat flew off, but then felt a sudden chill as the darkness returned.

She closed her eyes.

Believe it or not, but she saw more light with her eyes closed than open. She kept them closed, then opened them again. The darkness was there still, only now she saw a beam of light, hitting the center of her room.

But it wasn't her room anymore.

The furnishings were richer, more elegant, older and darker than the current style. A large crystal chandelier hung from the much higher domed ceiling, whichever a much larger bedroom, one round crystal diverting a beam of moonlight from the large pointed-arch window down to the form of a woman, weeping on the floor, which was an elegant woven rug. She had long, straight black hair, tied with a white ribbon. She wore a white dress, elegant and old-fashioned. She was facing the floor, and, as far as Kagome could tell, bent over a large red stain in the rug. Kagome knew with a chill certainty what that red stain was. _Blood._

She got out of her bed, her silk nightgown shifting, and carefully walked up to the beautiful, weeping woman. She was behind the strange figure now, and couldn't see her face. "Excuse me miss," Kagome whispered. "Are you all right?"

She tapped the doubled-over figure of the woman, who rose, her hands covering her face. Her skin was smooth as silk, but white as marble. She turned around to face Kagome, revealing her front. Blood seeped through the weeping one's hands, down her white sleeves, soaking them with red blood. Her chest and dress front were also stained red, and she sobbed as Kagome reached out to hold her.

"Oh my goodness! What happened to you?" The woman cried harder.

"Here, let me help-"

Then, with speed not gifted to the living, the woman grabbed Kagome around the neck with one hand, pinning her to the wall. The woman scratched away at the girl with claws, shrieking as Kagome felt the talons rip through her thin nightgown and into her tender flesh. The pain blew her away as she felt blood flow down her dress, which was being shredded away into nothing. Kagome kicked off from the wall desperately, throwing herself at the woman in an attempt to knock her over and escape. But that was not to be. Tackling her to the floor, Kagome tried to escape, but the woman flipped their positions, pinning her on her back. The woman's hands were like claws, and Kagome, struggling for breath beneath the painful grasp of the sharp-nailed fingers, stared up into the woman's empty eye sockets, from which blood fell in awful torrents.

"Oh-my-god," she barely managed to say in her fear.

Horror filled the poor horrified girl, and she tried to claw at the woman's dead, yet beautiful face, struggling to escape from her strength, her malice. The woman roared at Kagome with a thundering ferocity that belonged to a lion, her rotten breath mixed with more blood beating Kagome's black hair into waving lengths along the carpet. Long sharp fangs growing from her fetid toothless gums, the woman bit the girl beneath her hard on the neck.

Kagome screamed.

"KAGOME!" The shout was a male's voice, coming from the direction of the washroom, or where the washroom _was_. "Kagome! What's wrong? Are you okay?! Kagome!"

She could see the voice's owner, Inuyasha, standing in the doorway that would normally be the way to the washroom, but was not there now. He looked like he was coming out of the paneled wall. But then he ran to her, and scooped her off of the floor, right through the dead woman, and back into the regular bedroom. She threw her arms around his neck, and sobbed into his chest.

"Oh, Inuyasha, thank you! I was so scared! Thank God you came!" He set her on her feet, and awkwardly patted her head while she held on to him, for dear life it seemed. He stared down at her, her body not in any way cut, but her nightgown --or the very little remains of it, which barely covered anything-- was soaked in blood. "Kagome, whose blood is that?" he asked, trying very hard not to stare at the girl's nearly exposed chest-- and failing miserably--, pressed against him, he in nothing but a black robe he hastily threw on. He tried to pry her from him, her grasp painful in her fear. "D-don't," Kagome whispered when he tried. "I-I is not decent."

"Kagome, I need to go get you a robe, okay?" he said, trying his very hardest to reason with the frightened creature. Kagome nodded, covered her chest, and went to sit on the edge of her bed. Inuyasha went to his room and came back with a large, man-sized black silk robe, the second pair of the type he had on. He wrapped it around Kagome and she tied the sash. Then, he sat in a chair against the wall, facing her as she sat back down on the bed, wrapped comfortably in the robe which, though several sizes to big, looked incredibly sexy on her.

(A/N: Am I allowed to write this? How old am I again?)

They just sat there for a while, in the dark, the only light being a lit candle in the washroom.

Kagome sighed, and lit a few of her own candles. The room was still silent. Inuyasha, growing more and more uncomfortable, started to speak.

"Kagome… what happened to you?" he asked, his voice uneasy, filled with concern. Kagome looked up at him, her eyes sad, tired, and frightened.

"I don't know," she whispered softly, closing her eyes. Instantly she saw the woman's deadly unseeing face, now rotted. She quickly opened her eyes immediately.

"Inuyasha…" she spoke softly. "I… I don't think I'll be able to sleep again."

"I don't think you should," Inuyasha said, incredibly concerned now. "Your dreams since the accident…only two, but…Kagome, what is happening to you?"

"I don't know!" Kagome replied, breaking up now. "I just can't sleep! I _can't!_ Every time I hic close my eyes, I see them!" She began to hiccup wildly now. "I see the man with red eyes, and hic a woman with no eyes! She wept out all her blood and tried to hic steal mine! They want to hurt me, Inuyasha! They want me hic to be one of _them!_"

"Kagome, what are you talking about? What woman?" Inuyasha held her weeping form still now. He was at her side, down on one knee, gazing up into her eyes. His whole position in relation to hers made Kagome quiet enough to start.

"I saw, hic in my dream, a hic-man, weeping in the center of this old room. It seemed right hic out of a castle from the Dark Ages. I came up to her to hic see what was wrong, but she turned around… and attacked me! She had no hic eyes, and blood poured from the sockets all hic over me. Then you hic came, and saved me." She stared around the room. "I can still see her, Inuyasha." Her voice was a fast whisper, and her eyes were wide. "She is here, in the hic room; somehow… I can see her when I close my eyes, and I am afraid…hic…" She sniffled slightly. "That is why I can't hic sleep, Inuyasha."

"Kagome…" Inuyasha looked at her, his eyes half closed. He was thinking. "Maybe, well… I… could… sleep… with you…" He scratched the back of his head nervously, a sweat drop on his head. He put on an uneasy smile in the short silent period between them. "B-but then again, if you don't want me to…"

"NO!" She said immediately, beginning to squeeze him. But then she stopped herself, ran a hand through her bangs. "No… Inuyasha. That would be very kind of you… Thanks…"

"Um, err, okay… Who's room?" he asked nervously.

Kagome looked around the room, and at the window viewing the castle on the hill. "Does your room have a window that faces north?"

"No… it faces east…" Inuyasha replied.

"Your room," Kagome said with a smile, and walked with Inuyasha out of the bedroom and across the hall, slipping her hand into his.

End of Chapter Three

A/N: Getting' good, huh? Like the blind dead woman! That idea took me a while. So did the short fluff scene at the end. I'm working with this as it goes along, so bear with all my ideas, okay? I'm trying to jam all of the scariest possible situations into one plot, and I'm not doing too well. Ah well. If you don't like it, go to hell. Reviews please! New poll:

Which girl is cooler? (Be honest!) Sango or Kagome? Personally, (I'm a boy, don't judge me) they're both hot. Sango has curves… Kagome's cuter… _Hmm…which one?_


	4. What We Bury

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Hello, all. The responses have been… well…interesting, to say the least. But who cares, really? Almost every anime girl is hot. Ah well…I will never live this down in front of my female peers…('-,-') This will never be over, will it? My Internet sucks! My house is the problem, not the landlord. The stupid phone jacks won't work, and my dogs chewed up my cable line. Writing is all I do, and I post using my best friends' computers. I'm pathetic!

As for the unusual offer Inuyasha made Kagome, let's just say this: When Inuyasha is human, he tends to be _much _nicer to Kagome, and since he is human for most of this fan fiction story, he will be a nice guy for most of the time, at least until I figure out some good heroic anime dialog that doesn't use so many big words.

Wah! My eyes look like GE labels! Thanks to you all who have been so patient with me, even though you are at home banging a bat on my head, which is really your globe of the Earth, and cursing me for updating slowly. Trust me, if I could update faster, I would! I want you to like me! (Curses non-existent peer pressure)

BEDEUTEND! The German phrase with the "" means Save My Soul.

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, I'd give him to the highest bidder and keep Kagome for myself. Since I can't do that, I must not own him. Common sense you copyright police!

Chapter 4: What We Bury

Kagome slept very well that night, not realizing that Inuyasha had stayed awake, nervous about sharing the same bed as his beautiful female friend.

__

Oh God, he thought, _she is so beautiful all the time. _But did he really mean it, or was it the proximity of her chest and his face? Either way, this poor guy was very tired when the sun finally lit the black sky, turning it a hollow gray. The room brightened steadily, and when Kagome woke up, she found tired brown eyes staring into her own blue ones.

"Good morning Inuyasha," she said happily, hugging him. "Thank you for letting me sleep with you."

"Err…No problem at all," he said with a yawn.

"I never had a single bad dream," she said softly. "I am so sorry about last night. I woke you up, and you had to give me one of your robes."

"Oh, don't worry," he responded with a smile. "I carried that extra robe for just such an occa-" he stopped speaking when he realized what he was saying, and blushed.

"Sorry," he murmured.

"Sorry? Why? I'm glad you brought that robe. It was kind of you to not make me sleep with you in nothing but my skin."

"Mm. Yes… really kind… Let's get up before Sango barges in and catches us this way. Who knows what she would think?" He quickly stood up, hauling Kagome to her feet, and walking her back to her room. She stumbled along after him, through the washroom and into her own room. Then, he whirled around and stormed back through the washroom, closing the door behind him. Kagome stared after him in a daze.

"What crawled up his butt and died?" She shrugged it off as a guy thing, and went to get dressed in the much less frightening room. "Amazing what a little sunlight can do."

And she really did mean little. The sky was as gray as lead, and the sun that came through was the same sickly sun as yesterday. Kagome dug through her dresser drawers, looking for the most boring dress she had. It turned out to be a large black long-sleeved dress that was now a faded gray. There was white detailing covering it in the form of ivy-like twisting lines.

"Why did I pack this again?" Why, for a funeral, of course! You never know with the war going on. Unfortunately, Kagome had the feeling that there were frequent funerals here… After a quick wash-up she began to brush her hair. She looked into her mirror, and instantly regretted it.

The face of the dead woman was there, and she was rotting, a nearly transparent white burial shroud draped over her. She appeared to be praying, her mouth moving too fast to make out the words, but her whispers filled Kagome's head. Kagome was too scared to look away. She stared into that mirror for who knows how long, watching the woman pray, and she shivered to see the room behind the woman: a decaying tomb, beautiful, yet horrid.

"W-what is happening to me?" Kagome cried, and slapped herself, trying to rid her mind of what she was seeing. She couldn't. So she slapped herself again and again until her face was raw, but still she saw that woman, and she dared not move, could not move for fear of something worse.

Blood still poured down the dead woman's face, and Kagome reached up in fear to touch her own face, and found it covered in warm, muggy liquid. When she pulled her hand away from her face in shock, she saw it covered in crimson. She looked up at the mirror, and found herself staring at gleaming silver doors, the reflection of her room at Sango and Miroku's house on one of the panels, and she herself staring back, only it wasn't her: it was her body. It smiled devilishly, revealing rows of pointed teeth, and it waved, a red glint in its eyes. It was the woman. _They had changed places._

"No! You can't have me!" she cried, and dove desperately at the panel, and, somehow, she came hurtling through her mirror back into her bedroom with a crash.

She lay on the ground, glass shards scattered around her. She looked back, and saw that the mirror was broken, it wooden back revealed. "What just happened?" she murmured in terrified wonder, her voice shaking in her chest. Suddenly the sounds of quick footsteps came outside her door, and Sango came rushing in. "Kagome! You broke our mirror!"

"Oops… I'm sorry Sango! I didn't mean to-"

"Dear me! It looks like it fell on you or something. Are you okay, Kagome?"

"Yes, Sango, I am. Thanks for asking," Kagome lied as pushed herself up and brushed shards of glass off of her ugly dress.

"No you're not. You have seven years' bad luck now! Quick, let's find a ladder for you to walk under. We need to cancel out the first bad luck!"

"Okay… Sango, now you're scaring me…"

"Kagome, everything here is real; everything that scares you can hurt you."

"Oh, now _that's _comforting…"

"You've got to learn that if you want to live through the winter. Don't just stand there! Come with me! There's a ladder in the storage house out back. Come on." And so, after a quick ten-minute trod to the shed, Kagome was "curse-free." Sango had led her out back, through the snow-enshrouded gardens, and the bartender was right: it was in full bloom. A blooming weeping willow still held all of its blossoms, though they were buried in snow; a rose-bed was still strikingly red beneath its frosty coat.

"Sango, my friend!" Kagome said in awe as they walked back into the garden, preparing to go inside again. "How did you do this? How do you let flowers bloom in the dead of winter? In the Austrian Alps, no less?"

Sango smiled knowingly, and led Kagome to a small rotunda under the shade of three tall pine trees. In the center of the rotunda stood a great stone crucifix of Jesus Christ, and all around the cross Sango had laid the dead flowers of her garden. "For every flower that dies, I pray for one to take its place. You see, Kagome, vampires are attracted to bright colors like red, blue, yellow, and green, and everything in between. But that is only when that thing moves. Flowers move only in the wind, so I can safely have a beautiful garden."

"But what about you saying 'Even the house colors are dulled'? The house can't be safe with a garden near it, right? The flowers seem bright to _me_, anyway."

"They have to be. Look at the house. The wrap-around portico keeps the plants away from the house. The house itself is dull. The gardens are sort of like… a distraction, if you will. The dead prowl the gardens, and the living prowl the house."

"Smart. How'd you figure that out?"

"Some guy put a rose in the middle of the road a few months ago, and the dead crowded around it," Sango said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Incredibly smart. Why'd he do that?" Kagome asked. The idea seemed so simple. Why didn't other houses have such gardens?

"They were chasing him for carrying it. Everything else he wore was black."

"Was? Not so smart anymore, is he?" Kagome remarked, trying to lighten the mood.

"No, he didn't get away…" Sango sighed, and led Kagome back into the gardens, up on the patio.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kagome said, biting her lip.

"Don't worry about it. We have a funeral to attend later anyway… Shippo's…"

Suddenly a horrible wail echoed over the air, a wail so horrible that all who heard trembled, a deep, deadly sadness falling in their hearts. It was followed by long silence, as cold and sad as the wail itself.

"Victoria," Sango said, and tears welled up in her eyes. "Miroku must have just told her…"

"D-does this happen every day?"

"About every day, yes… But I _knew _Shippo, Kagome. It wasn't like a stranger dying… I helped mentor him for the last few months… I was Victoria's friend… He reminded me… of Kohaku…" She wept hard, leaning on a featureless stone column.

"Sango… I am so sorry…" Kagome reached to hold her, but was reminded of her dream. She pulled her hand away quickly, as if her friend would turn around and bight it off. She stood and watched.

"Don't be…" Sango replied, her voice choked with tears. She pushed herself off of the column, and turned around to face her friend. "It's not your fault, Kagome. What I should be more concerned about is that his memory is buried… We must have a funeral, and right away."

"But without a body?" What were they to bury without a body?

"We don't bury bodies in this place, Kagome. What we bury is far more important than any body." Her voice was cold, low, dead. She was standing, unmoving, her face expressionless.

"What do you mean, Sango?" Kagome felt the hairs under her gray sleeves stand on end. "What do you bury?" This village was creeping her out. She knew there were monsters nightmares, and darkness, but what of the dead? Where do they sleep, if ever?

"Love, Kagome my friend. We bury our love."

Kagome stared at Sango like she was mad. "I'm going to go find Inuyasha now…"

"Why? He left already with Miroku. He told you, didn't he?"

"Left already? Where did he and Miroku go?"

"He must not have told you, then. To The Fox Den, of course! Kagome, you seem to be getting ditzy to me. Over it live Leon and Victoria! Shippo's parents! You stopped in there, right? Miroku had to go tell them the bad news, and Inuyasha went with him."

"I need to go to him, Sango." Sango gazed at her with knowing eyes and a reluctant smile. Kagome had the feeling that inside; Sango was grinning from ear to ear.

"Why, Kagome? In a sudden rush to see our loved ones, hmm?"

"Err…" Kagome felt her face burning red, vividly and as hot as the summer sun. "He forgot to say 'good morning' back to me?"

"I don't believe you, but let's go anyway. There is no point in waiting around here. What have we to do? Let's go then. A merry idea of yours, Kagome, even you are a ditz." Sango said as they walked through the house, entering from the back door.

"A DITZ?" Sango looked at Kagome. Was that steam coming out of her ears?

"I said that out loud? Oops…"

"Why you-"

"Don't attack a woman in mourning over the loss of a child, Kagome! Such things are better left unsaid! Let's go honor Shippo's memory before bearing our love for him away. Besides, if stay angry for so long, you'll steam your brain."

"Agreed…."

"About the brain or leaving? Hey, watch it! I need to be in one piece so I can cook!" They passed Myoga in the kitchen, where he was scouring the supplies for a morsel to eat.

"Myoga, we are going out to meet Miroku and Inuyasha! See you in a bit!" Kagome yelled. Myoga waved her off, his nose buried in the cupboard.

They headed down a hall, past the parlor, and through the great front doors. They ran down the tree-lined drive, over a wind-swept white lawn, and onto the gravelly road. They went down it, and Kagome noticed Sango's eyes always straying to the sky, and to the light part, the only hint of the sun. They came up to the large collection of buildings that made up the center of town, and the first building they saw was The Wolf's Den.

Standing outside, watching them rush by, was a handsome young man with long dark hair held up in a ponytail, and icy blue eyes. He grinned at them, revealing long canines.

"Good afternoon Sango!" he said. Sango came over to speak to him.

"Afternoon already, Koga?" she said, putting on an obviously fake smile that fooled Koga easily.

"Yes." His eyes strayed to Kagome, and locked on to her. "Well, look who we have here! A pretty girl, she is! Sango, may I know the name of this lovely individual?" He grabbed her hand and kissed it. Kagome was reminded of Inuyasha, and the thought that this boy was kissing her hand in the same way turned her stomach for some reason.

"It's Kagome," she said, pulling her hand from his grasp. "Kagome Higurashi."

"Well, it's a treat knowing you're… alive, Kagome Higurashi." He smiled again, revealing those long fangs. Kagome shuddered involuntarily.

"What is it, Kagome? Are you cold?" Sango asked.

"Y-yes. We should go find Inuyasha and Miroku now."

"Inuyasha?" Koga asked suspiciously. "Who is… 'Inuyasha'?"

"My fiancé," Kagome said automatically. Sango looked at her, eyebrows raised and smile now real.

"Oh Kagome!" she said joyfully. "I didn't know!"

"Shush!" Kagome hissed at her.

"Well, I'll see you girls later," Koga said. He turned around and went into The Wolf's Den.

"That was?"

"Koga Reinhardt, the son of the owners of The Wolf's Den. He's an eligible bachelor, and his business makes much money."

"Oh… I don't like him at all."

"I wouldn't either if he were hitting on me when I was ENGAGED!"

"Shush! You know it was just a lie!"

"Yes, I know. But I have to make it seem real. Let's go."

They wandered down the wide gravel street into the center of town, where the great black cathedral towered above all, dwarfing all the buildings. Despite its dark, gargoyle-dotted walls, it had a glowing quality to it, the light of the village. Near the cathedral they found The Fox Den, empty of guests. The door was open and lamps lit, so they went inside. They found Leon and Victoria sitting in chairs by a table near the vacant bar, each in each other's arms, staring vacantly across the table at Inuyasha and Miroku.

"I think we should have the funeral very soon," Miroku was saying. "The memories must be disposed of immediately, or you will suffer the symptoms of worrying…" He turned and looked at the two girls, and gestured them to come sit down. "Sango, I was just telling Leon and Victoria Orlandus to bury the love and memories of Shippo immediately. Could you go to the convent and request council with Mother Kaede?"

"Yes Miroku," Sango said, and left to do her job. Kagome got up and followed her. Together they walked across the street to the cathedral grounds, and entered a small, barren-looking building with the words _Retten Mich die Seele _carved into the stone above the heavy black cross-studded door that was the only entrance. Kagome shivered when she saw the words.

Sango knocked on the door with a heavy black-painted bronze doorknocker. A little viewing panel slid open in the door, revealing bright eyes set into a wrinkled surround. "Good afternoon, fine ladies. What can I do for you dears?"

"Miroku needs us to speak with someone, Sister," Sango said softly. She looked at the nun who answered intently. The nun looked back, smiled, and then opened the door. She beckoned them inside. Slowly and silently, she led them into the convent house and down a hall to an old, circular chamber.

Candles in dozens of stands filled the room, and praying in the center was an old, wrinkled woman, her broad, hunched back facing them, her nun robes as black as the night. The whispering voices of her prayers filled the room, made the flames flicker

playfully like flowers in a soft wind.

The little nun left, leaving the girls alone in the circular room with the praying woman. She bowed her head deeply, uttered a final _Amen_, crossed herself, and turned around to face them. The Mother Kaede, Head of the Sisters of the Weeping Mother, was so short that she seemed no bigger standing up than kneeling. Her one eye (the other was covered with a patch, so they naturally assumed it was gone) was a deep brown, and her wrinkled face was full of wisdom. She had a tired, but regal air around her, and she seemed much taller than she really was.

"Good afternoon Sango," she said in a wise old voice that bore the feel of aristocracy.

"Good afternoon Mother Kaede," Sango replied courteously. "Miroku sent me here to request audience with you, and now I have it. I bear terrible news, Mother. Shippo Orlandus has passed away into the realm of the Nightmare Atop The Mountain. The vampire holds him now. His memory must be buried immediately in the Graveyard of the Lost Ones. If not, the grief suffered will be unbearable, and his parents might submit to the power of the Nightmare. I might as well."

"Hmm. This is a terrible thing to witness in my lifetime," said Mother Kaede in her old voice. "All these long years, I have buried the dead of the Nightmare, and have gone to great lengths to save the lives of these villagers who dwell under the authority of Schloss Nachtigall. The sky grows darker with each passing day, and yet they do not flee, even in summer. For as long as memories of horror are buried and forgotten, what is there to fear?

"I knew Shippo well, Sango, longer than ye could hope to. It was I who was there to help Victoria in labor, it was I who helped to raise him and his friends. It was this convent over which I preside that gave them what education we could, that they would grow and wisely leave this place. Heinrich fell to the darkness fifty years ago, Sango, before ye were born or ye husband.

"Such is the power of Lamarr, the dread count atop the hill, in his mighty castle, the very stones of which have been painted with human blood, that he could hold the foundations of the mountains hostage, and torture the earth until it wept and submitted to him, that the snow which falls does not glitter in the sun, that the sun cannot look upon us for fear of him."

"But Mother, we ask that you let us bury his memory in the Graveyard!" Sango pleaded. "If his parents submit to the powers of darkness in their misery, then the Dread Count will be even more powerful, maybe so powerful that he could launch an assault upon Austria!"

"What gives ye the authority to undermine me? My decision is final. His memory cannot be buried. I cannot allow these people to live blissfully under the shadow of Castle Nightingale! If they know the pain they will suffer by staying here, then they will have to leave when the passes clear and the cold shield lifts.

"Do ye think I have not wit in my old age to think about the possibility that the demonic army might storm the streets of Vienna in the dead of night and turn all of Austria into a realm of eternal darkness? Do ye think that I have no knowledge of the war that conveniently cripples all of Europe for the Count?

"Nay say I to losing Shippo's memory. He is the first to die since your husband started chasing down villagers nutty enough to wander the streets at night. Even the convent-house isn't safe. The cathedral, however, is. Why was Miroku not patrolling the streets by then? Who was so important that he didn't bother to go save anyone until the sun disappeared? He should have been out by late afternoon, warning everyone to get inside.

"So I cannot allow Shippo to be buried. Such a popular boy being taken by the darkness… Everyone will feel the bitter anguish, even me, and realize that they have to leave Heinrich before the Count gets bored. Good day to you, Sango!" With that she angrily shoved past them into the hallway, and went into a different room, slamming shut the door behind her.

Kagome turned and looked at the stunned Sango. "Did I just here a nun yell at you to _not_ bury the dead?"

Sango just stared at Kagome. "Do you know how bad this is?"

Kagome shook her head. "No, not really. But it seems pretty bad."

"Oh, it is so much worse than 'pretty bad.' Victoria loves her son more than anything. She might submit to the darkness just to find him. She got her palm read by a fortuneteller not too long ago. The fortune-teller said that she had one of the most potent spirits ever seen! Leon was normal, but Victoria's reading! Whichever power she submits to, good or evil, she will give that side great power."

"I have never been in such a place where good and evil are such huge factors," said Kagome, her head buzzing with all of the information. "It is hard to believe such a place is kept hidden!"

"Heinrich is in no way hidden," Sango said. "It is on every map; it is a listed dependent county of the Holy Roman Empire. The only way it is hidden is news of what goes on here."

Kagome shuddered as the two walked back down the hall toward the convent's front doors, preparing to leave the house. They strode through the doorway and into the white street, snow falling from the sky. The village seemed different from the door. It was quaint-looking, alluring, snow-covered like frosting. Children played during the last hours of sunlight, adults watching intently while carrying on good-natured talk. Light glowed in the windows of houses, and smoke rose from the cross-studded chimneys. It seemed quite peaceful. It was almost hard to remember what it was like at night.

"It is quite beautiful," Kagome said softly.

"I know, but remember: things are not what they appear," Sango warned. The two walked across the street to The Fox Den.

End of Chapter 4

A/N: I forgot my binder today! That is, I left it on the bus when I got home. I can't do my homework (Yay or boos? It's high school after all…)! So I typed up the final part of this chapter. Oh, by the way! My friend "korikitsue0" (I don't know if it's his author name or not, but oh well) is making a story similar (I hope, for his sake, not _too_ similar) to BOTH called "Valley in the Mist." Terrifying title, no? Not really, but who cares? He's a good friend, so, when he finally gets it posted, be nice and read it! Please?


	5. When The Night Falls

Blood Of The Heart

A/N: Hello, all who love me, and various haters! This is the fifth installment of Blood Of The Heart (duh!). I'm so happy! Halloween! Randomness! Gotta love it! LITMAG! SUCKS! IT'S! BORING! Okay, I'm done. Now, my lovely kitty face, just for the heck of it: ('-,-') I'd say cute, but I have a pair of… So that won't work. As for korikitsune's story, it's in the works, and not up yet. On to the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I do not own any way, shape, or form, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, or any other characters belonging to Rumiko Takahashi, who is almighty in the anime/manga world. Plus, I'd like to thank my mom, for having me, my dad, for being there when it happened, God for making me, Jesus for protecting me, and the Academy who went through so much to get me here! Boohoo! I'm so happy!

Chapter 5: When The Night Falls

__

January 6th, 1641

Dear Diary,

A great deal has happened today that you don't know about! First, I woke up in Inuyasha's bed. I was so happy. I didn't have a single bad dream. I think it's the room I have. I had…I don't know…a nightmare while the sun was up. I was awake the whole time, I believe. I saw a dead woman, which I also saw in a horrible dream that led me into Inuyasha's bed…yay…but **she** was standing in the mirror instead of me. I was somehow switched with her… I think I wound up in her body and she in mine. But I escaped somehow…don't ask me, I don't know how, but I came hurtling back through the mirror and into my bedroom! It was real too, because the mirror broke!

Then, I went with Sango to the gardens, where she told me how the house was safe from demons…or whatever stalks this town at night. It was that the garden was bright, and all who were inside were safe since all who were outside came to the garden and left the house alone. It was very interesting. You should… see it… but… You can't. You are a book, and I am gifted enough in such times to read and write, unlike others. But I love you anyways! † † † Crosses are for safety here.

Today Miroku had to inform the family that their boy Shippo had died… Or rather un_died! He became an undead thing, like those demons that kill people who go out at night. It was horrible. The nun wouldn't let us bury his memory, and when Sango and I told the mother…She seemed to have lost the remaining pieces of her mind. The father, Leon, broke down, and he wept out his heart. It was sad. We also met a boy named Koga, who was… kind of creepy. He kissed my hand and wouldn't stop. It was like he was trying to… eat me. Whoa! I wrote a lot! Anyhoo, to get him off of me I had to tell him I was engaged to Inuyasha! It was fun, but boy! Did he look pissed or what! I can't wait for Inuyasha to meet him. I wonder what would happen…No time for that now. I have to attempt to close my eyes and go to sleep. It was a long day._

Sincerely Yours, Truly and Madly,

Kagome Higurashi

Kagome sighed, not looking forward to sleeping, as she put her diary and ink away. The lone candle that lit her dark room was sputtering away, smelly wax slowly dripping into dark red pools on its stand. She looked out the window. Again she saw the castle at the top of the hill, _Schloss Nachtigall_, or Castle Nightingale. It stood, forlorn and proud, bathed in the light of the full moon that managed to pierce the dark clouds. Its towers were dark, hulking silhouettes of glittering obsidian, the stark, empty windows specks from so far away, like pores on rock-bound skin.

Were the stones really painted with human blood, like Mother Kaede said? Kagome thought. The visit to the Convent House of the Weeping Mother had her mind buzzing with questions. _She asked what delayed Miroku on his duty to save people the night Shippo became undead… Was he waiting for Myoga, Inuyasha, and me? Did we indirectly kill Victoria's little son?_ Kagome felt sick to her stomach. She stared absently out that window at the castle until the candle sputtered itself into darkness. Moonlight flooded the room, silver beams crisscrossing the floor, dancing amid the shadows.

Suddenly she saw a light in the top room of the top tower. She sat up. Her candle was out. It was not a reflection. "Kagura? Are you really up there?" Kagome whispered breathlessly. She saw this light now, two nights in a row. It had to be Kagura. Who else resided up in Schloss Nachtigall save this mysterious vampire-like count? Was he truly undead? Or was it a figment of lore that involved a past ruler? She really couldn't say anything, except "Kagura, you are one crazy son-of-a-bitch."

With that crazily triumphant thought in her mind, she jumped into her bed, pulled up the warm covers, and snugly let herself drift off into a well-deserved sleep.

The Dream

It wasn't dark this time. Kagome was sitting up in her bed, the moonlight flooding across her white sheets. Next to her lay a man. Who, she did not know, but he was very muscular. His head she did not look at. She was more fascinated by his hands, large hands, like Inuyasha's, which were wrapped around her.

She fiddled with his long fingers, which were tipped with claws as sharp as razors. She knew that, having cut herself deeply. Red blood dripped down her finger, and she shoved it in her mouth. The blood tasted different than hers, though. It was bitter, no metallic feel to it like her regular blood. It was even darker than her regular blood.

"Kagome," the voice of the body spoke. It was Inuyasha's. She looked up at his head, and was very surprised with what she saw. His hair, rather than the rich black, was gleaming silver, demonic little dog-ears sticking out of his head. His eyes were bright gold, and fangs hung over his lips. She was startled, but not unpleasantly so.

"Inuyasha," she responded, feeling herself getting flushed.

"You cut yourself," he said, without looking at her finger. He drew it up to his mouth, and licked the blood clean. "You know that we heal faster, but don't cut yourself. Remember how precious blood is."

"What? Inuyasha, you look different. There is something wrong, isn't there?" She asked worriedly, playing with his silver hair.

"Nothing is wrong Kagome, considering what we now are," Inuyasha said softly. "I cannot believe you fell asleep. There's plenty of time for that during the day. Get up. Let us go get some breakfast."

"Something is _very wrong_ with you, Inuyasha." She began to wonder what kind of messed-up dream this was. So far so good, anyways. "What are you, a vampire?"

"Maybe," he said, pulling back his lips in a smile. His fangs were revealed in there entirety, each an inch long, and probably sharper than his claws. Now she noticed that the tips were stained dark red.

A sweat drop appeared on her head. Not so good anymore. "OH MY GOD!" she cried. "OH MY GOD! YOU'RE A VAMPIRE! AH!" She crawled away from him, to the edge of the bed, as far away as she could get without going over the edge, into the darkness beneath the moonlight.

"Calm, Kagome. You are one as well… or at least will be when I'm done with you…" He grabbed her hand as she tried to dart out of the bed. "Let go of me!" she wailed as he began to drag her back into his arms. She tried to wrench her hand free, and couldn't. His razor grip was digging into her hand, and she couldn't pull away, unless she wanted to rip her hand apart in the process. She already felt blood seeping through her fingers.

"Please, Kagome my dearest! Don't you want to spend all eternity with me? Like you promised me?" She stopped struggling, and stared at him, him in his begging position, not willing to let her leave until she listened to him.

"W-what did you say I did? Repeat it… please…" Her voice trailed off, and her eyes grew wide. She watched him slide out from under the covers, nude. He stared at her his skin as white as the sheets, his eyes of honey penetrating her very existence, staring into the deepest, darkest depths of her heart and soul. She shivered as the gust of his icy gaze pierced her.

"You said to me and many others that I was yours and you were mine, and that we were bound to each other until in death we part." Kagome looked at her left hand. Upon her ring finger, bright and golden, sat a ring, a _wedding_ ring to be exact. It was lovely too, gold and silver braids making up the vine-like band, and the large diamond was cut like an opening flower, its pink and white crystals glittering like pale stars.

She shook her head, blinked her eyes, for they were watering for both happiness and agony. Kagome looked up into his eyes, golden as the band of the ring, her stomach feeling a stone about to plummet from her body. She fixed herself with resolve.

"But you _are_ dead, Inuyasha! Part with me, like _you_ promised!" She watched his eyes as she said this, wondering, hoping that they still held emotion in death. His eyes narrowed, and the warm honey turned to a freezing brass, harsh and bright. Apparently they did have emotion. It was just the wrong type.

"No…" He spoke quietly in a deadly voice that captured her, held her in icy shackles. "I lost you once to him, and sacrificed myself to keep you alive. Look how God repaid me, Kagome. He made me this way. I have been cursed to rise from the dead, bound to this never-aging body, never to be free.

"But you still are alive, as am I- but only in different ways. I have become more powerful, more athletic, stronger, faster, and smarter… I have become a perfected form of… _undead. _You have remained a human. Think about this statement, Kagome: 'If you are undead, aren't you alive?'" It was a simple, yet profound statement, a move only Inuyasha could execute so perfectly on her. Was this really a dream?

"I-I don't know…" Kagome said, and she could feel him squeezing her hand harder, not letting go. "But I don't want to be a vampire, Inuyasha. Only those who commit suicide, die violently, or are condemned by the Church become vampires. It sounds painful, if you ask me." She was being gut-honest. Who would die to have eternal life? Literally?

"Only for a minute." It was a matter-of-fact statement, as light on his lips as the weather.

"I suppose you'd know… But I don't care if it's less than a _second_. It is ungodly and satanic, and I won't become what you now are!" She felt her spirit rising, rebellion flaring in her heart like a viscous fire, consuming all of her fears.

"Darling-" he began, but she cut him off.

"Shut up and listen to me, Inuyasha! I loved you, all right? I LOVED you. I can't love you when you are trying to kill me or turn me into a demon! Love isn't cruel, or evil, or unjust, or anything bad at all! You're tying to make me into something evil, like you have become. That is not love, Inuyasha. I don't know how or what you feel towards me, but it is not love."

She felt herself begin to cry, and Inuyasha's grip tightened, until her hand went numb and odd cracking sounds, like ice breaking, echoed. She felt tiny winces of pain, and saw bone rip through her skin.

Her stomach turned, and she felt ready to vomit, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the carnage Inuyasha was doing to her right hand. She could only stare. When he was through, it looked like someone had crumpled up her hand like a bloody, fleshy, bony piece of paper. Not a single portion of skin was seen. _What am I dreaming? What is happening? Why don't I wake up now?_

She looked at her hand, and felt the bloody remains throb violently, but not enough to be serious. But soon, the throbbing erupted into a full -scale pain that left her shrieking and crying violently, rolling around on the bed, her blood staining the sheets a dark red. _Why am I in so much pain? Is this a dream? Do dreams really hurt this much?_

She felt herself getting weaker, her vision getting darker, as her life poured out of her right hand and onto the bed covers, while Inuyasha sat there, a nude, beautiful figurer, as pale as his brother in the moonlight, watching her writhe in pain with such indifference he might have been a porcelain doll. Blood even sprayed on him, until it looked like he was sweating it, his hair now spotted crimson. _It hurts so much. Let me wake up. Let me wake up._

He opened his mouth to speak, Kagome saw, and above her screams of pain and torture she could hear his smooth, sensuous voice, lips moving to his words, and he spoke to her softly, like he was in a library, or at a grave event.

"You hurt me, Kagome," he spoke. "You hurt me so badly in my heart. I felt the blood that wasn't mine, I could tell whose was whose, and felt guilty for being alive right now, waiting for you. Be glad it's only your hand, Kagome my Darling; it is something that I can fix later. I was thinking about digging your icy heart out of your chest and eating it while your blood still settled. Do you know that if I ripped your heart out fast enough, I could have it finished before you finally died?" _Why is he saying this? Why does he want me dead? _

He then began to wring out portions of the blood-soaked sheets, letting the blood trickle down into his mouth like canteen water. It spilled over his lips and down his neck and chest, soaking back into the sheets.

Kagome could barely see him, could barely think over the excruciating pain. She felt her mind shattering, her soul being dragged from her, her very semblance of being melting away, all in that exquisite pain. _Lord, My God, let me wake, please! _she thought.

"We will be together, Kagome," he whispered, bending down to kiss her as she felt her will to live ebb away. "You and me, for all eternity." He bent down, and whispered in her ear, his lips tickling, his fangs cutting, and deceit sewn into his very flesh. "I will _never_ leave you, Kagome. I will follow you to Hell and bring you back with me."

Suddenly, and quite timely in her opinion, Kagome's bedroom door was knocked down, and a dark-haired man swept into the room, his long ebony hair billowing behind him. In his hand he held a shining cross, and Inuyasha hissed, and flew back, as if he was blown away by a blast of strong wind. Suddenly, he was surrounded, clothed in a cape of loving darkness, as if the night sky itself wrapped its arms around him.

The window latch flew open, and the panes were blown back by a great blast of wind, shattering the glass, glittering shards flying into the sky. Wings of shadow, great bat's wings with a combined span of well over twenty feet, shot open, the leathery membrane red as blood in the moonlight. Inuyasha closed his wings, then opened them, and flew out the window, into the night sky, sweeping toward the dark towers of Schloss Nachtigall.

The curtains billowed violently in the icy wind, and Inuyasha's flying form disappeared into the distance. The man with the dark hair swept down to her, and scooped her up in strong, supporting arms. Through the empty darkness around her mind, Kagome saw him, blurrily, his face invisible to her.

"I-Inuyasha…?" she asked, reaching up with her left hand to touch his hair; it was soft, just like Inuyasha's. "Is that you?"

"No, Kagome, it is I." His voice was different, deeper, embedded deep into her thoughts, thoughts she couldn't capture or remember.

"I know your voice," she whispered, and as she struggled to remember, he got clearer. His face was not Inuyasha's, but it looked just as handsome. "Where have I seen you before?"

"I know not where," he responded, "but I know who you are."

"Who are you?"

"I am… Naraku…"

"Mm… Naraku, was it? How bad is my hand?"

"Which one?"

"The only one that is ripped to shreds," she whispered softly. "I can barely think. Check it. How bad?"

"Both hands are fine, Kagome Higurashi."

"You do know who I am. Wait a minute: What did you mean, 'which one?'"

"As I said before, both hands are fine. Look for yourself, dear."

She did. Indeed, both hands were fine. She flexed her fingers, cracked her knuckles, and rotated her wrists. Nothing was wrong. "I don't understand… what happened?"

"This is a dream, Kagome. I exist only in your dreams. But I must warn you, Kagome: stay away from Inuyasha. He just tried to kill you. These dreams you have been having… They are prophecies. The ones with the bloody woman… I do not know their meaning… But this one was easy to discover."

"What? What will Inuyasha do?" She looked into Naraku's eyes, a strange, veiled amethyst color. They seemed to be covering something, but she couldn't tell what.

"Isn't it obvious? He will try to hurt you, Kagome. He will tear your soul apart." Naraku's face was grave, no lies hidden in his strange eyes. She had a hard time believing him, but she felt like she had to trust him, even if her gut was against it.

"I am afraid, Naraku," she wept, burying herself in his warm black robes. "What will I do when I wake up?"

"Open your window, Kagome," he said, "and bear a piece of red cloth on it. Then I will come to you. We can talk more then when I arrive."

"But what will I do if flying demons? The red cloth will attract them!"

"The only flying monsters you should have any worry about are owls and bats."

"Ewww…."

"Trust me, Kagome. I will come to you tomorrow night, and we will speak of Inuyasha's devilries."

End of Chapter Five

A/N: Hola! How do you like this one? Good little element of plot, right? Right? On a scale of 1 to 5, 1 the lowest, 5 the highest, how would you rate Blood Of The Heart? Be totally honest, and tell me what you think, or I'll be mean and update only once every other month. Flatter me and say "No! Too Cruel! Ah! Boohoo!" See you all in the next chapter. If there is one… Wahaha! How was Halloween for you all? Tell me (in your reviews) if you went trick-or-treating.


	6. The Open Window

Blood Of The Heart

A/N: Hello, as always. Welcome to the sixth installment (yay! The sixth chapter means that the story is officially off the ground and worth reading) of Blood Of The Heart. From now on I will refer to it as BOTH. Ingenious, isn't it? Do you get it at all? Of course not…('-,-') ß KITTY! Now, as for the past chapter, yes, Naraku is making his eyes look different so Kagome won't recognize him. That was the scariest chapter, if you ask me, simply because I just had to have Inuyasha there naked to make things freakier. Of course, my mind has now been tainted with darkness, and I am praying to God to liberate me. If you haven't guessed, I am an active, very Christian person. Yay religion and the God who saves me! If you're atheist, then poop on you. Many religions to choose from, after all. On now to the disclaimer! I crave salmon for some odd reason!

Disclaimer: I avidly love Rumiko Takahashi and thank God she's on Earth to give us Kagome, Sango, and all the beautiful anime women (and men-retch!) to love and adore. So, I wouldn't dare steal credit from her. How's that, all you jealous one-minded stupid-heads?

Chapter 6: The Open Window

Kagome awoke, fear and relief mixing her mind into a clouded mess. She felt groggy, like she had been drinking, and her head ached horribly. She was loath to get up, but, for the first time, she saw that the sun was about to break through the clouds outside. She sat up in wonder, making her head sway, but she didn't mind, instead standing up and walking, slowly, unsteadily, toward the window that faced north.

Across the street, she saw scattered homes, more lie snow-covered farms, and in the distance the Austrian Alps loomed, Schloss Nachtigall obscured. But, just then, the sun broke free from its gray bonds, and soared openly in a blue sky. People already out and about in the street pointed in wonder.

Kagome felt her spirit lift, and almost felt her feet leave the floor. The sun broke through her window, and hit her full force, and she suddenly felt faint. _Too much excitement, and too early in the morning_, she thought as she slumped to the floor. _It is so bright. Have I truly gotten such a lack of sun?_ She looked at her arms, and the faces of the people outside. They were all white as the snow, and those who weren't were getting there.

"Kagome, Darling!" Inuyasha's voice rang out. Kagome turned her head and stared at him, a swell of fear filling her heart. _Remember what Naraku said…don't lose your head to Inuyasha's devilries. I must keep away from him until nightfall._ She shuffled away from him as he approached her from the washroom. He was fully dressed already, and it was only… What? Nine in the morning? _Dear me, I slept in_, she thought with a mental kick-in-the-butt.

"Kagome, what's wrong? You look a little bit sick. A cold, perhaps?" His brown eyes were full of concern. _Is he still pure?_ She found herself wondering.

"Kagome, you should go see Sango about that. But right now, I must talk to you." He sat down on the stool by her vanity. "Will you answer a few questions for me? To make me feel better?"

She nodded, and sat down on the bed, facing him. "What do you want to know?" she asked him rigidly, spine straight and hairs on end.

"Kagome, you look really tense right now. What are you worried about? Afraid I'll bight you or something?" He smiled, and it seemed to Kagome that his canines were slightly longer than usual. "I'm just joking. Goodness! You look like I'm going to kill you or something! Never mind, you're probably ill. Have you had any bad dreams this past night?"

Kagome stared at him, her mind launching into suspicion. _Why does he want to know? What business is it of his? Why is he even bothering to ask? Will he try to manipulate me?_ "Yes… But after that one point it got better."

"Really? What was the bad part?" He leaned over closer to her, his brown eyes intent upon her blue ones. "Tell me, please? I'm your friend right? Why are you so silent?"

"Oh yes… you are my friend, aren't you?" She felt herself remembering, distantly. Then she realized that it was only in one night that everything seemed to change. _Why am I letting one dream take me over? He still doesn't know, and he is just trying to help me. I must be honest, even if I hurt him._ "Inuyasha, I had a dream about… a vampire. It wasn't the dead woman this time, for some reason."

"Really? What else happened?" He was open, honest, and she realized now how different he was from her. Good friends as they were, he was absolutely clued out to her terrors. He knew virtually nothing, except that they scared her senseless. Was she the only one with nightmares? Should she tell Sango?

"The vampire was you, Inuyasha." This statement made him pale, but other than that, he seemed unmoved.

"R-really? I- I was your nightmare?"

"Well… I'm sorry, but you were. I have no idea why. You were cute, too, until you nearly killed me."

"I was a cute vampire?" He tilted his head and eyed her quizzically, like a curious dog. He seemed to think it funny. "Imagine! Me, a cute vampire… What did I look like?"

"Well, aren't we a little vain?" she asked with a smile, feeling herself slip back into normalcy. "Honestly! Can't we focus a little more on me?"

"Maybe, once you tell me how cute I was."

"You just _have_ to know, don't you?" She stuck her tongue out, and then told him what he looked like. "You were the same, but your eyes were gold, and sort of… cat-like. You had claws, really sharp ones, and your hair… it was silver. Your ears were like a dog's, you were very pale, and you had long fangs. Then you tore up my hand, and I nearly bled to death, but was saved by a strange man with amethyst eyes and long hair who called himself… called himself…" What was his name? Why couldn't she remember?

"Called himself…?" Inuyasha asked. _What's happening, Kagome? You can usually remember anything… Wait…_ "Did he look like the man from the dream you had in the carriage crash a few days ago? The one with red eyes and black hair who called you… what was the name… Kikyo?"

"I can't remember…" Kagome whispered. "I can't even remember what he said to me… what he looked like… I only remember black hair and amethyst eyes…"

"I don't like the sound of this," Inuyasha said with a frown. "You seem sick and can't remember anything. Maybe… you should stay inside today. I'll stay with you, if you want. Right now I should see what Myoga is up to. I haven't seen him since we left the Fox Den last night. You need time to get washed up and cleaned, anyway."

"Do you think I smell bad?" Kagome batted her eyes innocently, "because if you do, I'll throw you out the window like a pair of old shoes."

"No you wouldn't. You love me too much for that kind of evil. Admit it!"

"I do not! At least I don't think I do…No…you are right. You're too good a friend to kill." She flashed him a cheesy grin. "I do love you too much." She watched him turn red and smiled.

"Likewise, I'm sure," Inuyasha said softly. "I got to go find Myoga now. See you in a little while." He stood up and slowly walked out of the room, his footsteps echoing down the hall. She heard him loudly exclaim "I found you, you big fat blood-sucker! Get up! I can't believe you slept in the kitchen!" Then there was a period of silence. "You ate EVERYTHING!!!! You knew he ate everything? What's for breakfast then? No breakfast…? NO!"

Inuyasha's footsteps echoed up the stairs, and he appeared in her doorway again. "I'm going to the market with Sango and Miroku now. They've been waiting for a while, apparently." He smiled, waved, and disappeared again. Kagome laughed at him, and got up, going to the washroom to clean herself up. She was careful not to look in the mirror above the porcelain wash-basin. She then went to look for a warm robe that she could run around the house in, exploring for the time since she came here. Unfortunately, she didn't bring one, and went to take Inuyasha's black robe, the same one she wore in his bed. Yay!

Robed and slippered, she prepared for her romp around the house. Some toe-touches, one pushup, two sit-ups…She was ready. Onward, going bravely in her black robe, she went down the stairs, through the grand entrance hall, and found the library on the left. She entered it, almost immediately slipping on the dusty floor. She went, skiing, along the dusty floor, and crashed into a large grand piano, black under its dusty gray covering.

"Why doesn't anyone dust this friggen' room?!" she yelled. No one answered. "Myoga, I've got a steak!" Still no answer. _I must be alone, _Kagome thought. She looked around quickly to make sure no one could see her. Then, she planted her butt on the stool of the piano, pulled up the wood that covered the keys, and began to play. Unfortunately for her and any rats or bugs listening, the piano was so off key that it sounded like a dying canary imitating a swansong. Not quite right.

"Dear me, why do they leave me alone in this house? I could hurt myself!"

And do Kagome spent her afternoon, bored to death, eventually resorting to pouring over books and staring out the window at the strangely blue sky. "Who knew I'd be shocked to see the normal?" She asked softly.

__

January 7th, 1641

__

Dear Diary,

Help me! I'm stuck here! This is even more boring than the carriage ride from Munich! I miss the city! Why did Miroku and Sango have to come here? There is no culture, no entertainment… Am I spoiled? Inuyasha is obsessed with me thinking he's cute as a vampire. I had a dream where he killed me, and then I was saved by a mysterious man with strange eyes. He was very handsome… But he was ominous. He told me that Inuyasha was evil. Should I believe him?

Yet Who Could Forget I'm Yours?

Kagome Higurashi

Hours later, near sunset, Sango, Inuyasha, and Miroku came back, a large horse-drawn cartful of bags loading them down. Inuyasha, Kagome, and Sango put everything away, and Miroku went out to patrol the streets.

"Sango, could you tell me something?" Kagome asked.

"Duh yes. What is it?" She looked at Kagome out of the corner of her eye, not stopping what she was doing. She waited for Kagome to speak, but she didn't speak. Instead, she stood there, sorting fruits and vegetables that were meager in size.

_Should I ask her? _Kagome thought. _She might think I'm nuts, but maybe… she might have dreams too…She can't possibly be able to cope with the environment in this place, all the death and evil. How can she look so…satisfied? What is keeping her going? I should ask her that, more than anything else. _"What keeps you going? How do you live here and survive?"

"My husband of course. He keeps me going. Remember how he was such a pervert before we got married?"

"Who could forget?" Kagome giggled a little. Nothing was funnier than Miroku and Sango before the wedding, and how much of a gentleman he turned into when he settled down.

"Well," Sango continued, "it turns he wasn't lying."

"About what? I thought he lied about everything, and that's what made your marriage such a treat."

"He's _great_ in bed." (A/N: Bah, bum, BUM! Only I could put this in and make it work!) Sango continued what she was doing as though she said 'The weather was nice today.' Kagome just stared, the phrase 'too much information' racing through her head over and over again: TMI, TMI, TMI, TMI, TMI, TMI, TMI… 

"Okay… When does Miroku usually come home?"

"Around ten at night. Why?" Sango looked at her oddly.

"Never mind. I just wonder…err…" _Come Kagome! _she thought. _Change the subject!_ "Wonder… err…if you worry… yeah! If you worry!"

"Every agonizing second." Sango sighed, and began to start making dinner.

"Even now?" she asked softly, questioning her new subject.

Sango stopped, Inuyasha stopped, and Kagome and Inuyasha turned their heads, watching Sango. "I worry every long second, Kagome. My heart aches for him right this minute. I know he will not come back one of these times. I know he will die soon. Worry, Kagome. I worry because I am madly in love with him. The most I can do without putting him in more danger is to stay home and cook a meal for him, and keep it hot until he comes back. Almost every night a I life is saved, Kagome. I am so proud of him."

"Okay. I think I'll go to bed now."

"What?" Inuyasha looked at her like she was crazy. "We all had nothing to eat today except for the fat flea! He ate everything!"

"I know. I heard. I'm tired. I'm not hungry. Good night, my little vampire." Kagome walked into the entrance hall and up the stairs, head nodding already. _Why do I feel this way? I hardly did anything all day!_ Defeated by exhaustion, she put the black robe back into Inuyasha's closet and walked into her room. She then remembered that, in her dream, the man with amethyst eyes said to open the window and hang a red cloth on it. So she did. Then, feeling quite tired, she went to bed.

10: 30 PM

Miroku walked in through the front doors, looking very tired. Sango was waiting in the kitchen, and when she heard the heavy double doors close, she went to him.

"Miroku!" she exclaimed happily. "Welcome home! Come with me! I've got dinner waiting for you! It's nice and hot, like always." She was truly happy to see him, and Inuyasha admired their loyalty to one another. But Miroku shook his head when Sango tried to lead him towards the kitchen. He was doubled over, out of breath, and dead tired.

"Sango… not tonight," he moaned. "We need to… barricade the doors… Victoria is coming…"

"She is?" Sango asked. "Why are we to barricade the doors? If she is coming, we should be prepared to receive her."

"Sango, she went to the darkness… last night… Leon told me from his door that she left… She is the most dangerous thing to walk the village streets… since I've been going out at night… I ran from the other… side of town… back here… She's coming… and she'll be here any minute…"

Inuyasha knew what he meant. Immediately, he took chairs from the dining room and jammed them under the front and back doors. He then tried to push as much large furniture in the way as possible in the limited time left.

Sango followed suit, pulling all the shutters shut, which, in this town, were in the inside and not the outside, for who would be able to go out and do that at night? Rosaries were wrapped around door handles and shutter handles, so no demons could touch them. But still, Sango knew that Victoria was no ordinary woman, so she'd be no ordinary demon.

__

I can still remember what that fortune-teller said a few months ago. It was when a band of gypsies came in their wagon along with a goat, two dogs, and a cow. They had stopped in to trade, but no one would; gypsies are known to rob. But out here, far from the cities, we were more prone to want to get news from them, and most of that came from trade.

Victoria and I, bored as we were in fall, before the passes closed and the magic barrier was raised, decided to go look at the items for sale; we were equipped with a small cartful of bartering items. She and I browsed the shops that were set up all along the square by the cathedral, and we found a purple and gold tent, patterned with blue stars. We had the cart watched by a neighbor when we went in. We found that the tent was a fortune-teller's.

She was an old hag, bound in flowing dark robes, a bandana over her dark hair and great golden chains suspended around her neck. She was sitting at an odd round table draped in a black cloth. In the center was a shallow silver basin, filled with unmoving water, and a glass ball sat in the middle of that, soaking in the water. We were asked to sit, one at a time, in a chair across from her. We traded her two gold coins for our fortunes. She read mine first.

"Water, blessed by God," she cried, "reveal through His might the future of this dark-haired woman, Sango Josif, wife to Miroku Josef, son of Lord Josif of the city of Auschwitz. In this divine water, we will see the visions You give to us! I, a poor Jewish woman, a gypsy trained in the mystic art of divination, shall scry for you, a Christian, a wife!" Then she breathed lightly on the water, and told me to close my eyes.

I heard her chant. I did not see anything, but I felt a strange lack of privacy, like I was being exposed. I could feel the gypsy's eyes peer into my soul, the essence of Christianity's rocky foundations looking through a building built over it, peering at every detail, trying to determine what exactly I was for. Then I felt a sharp pain in my head. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

"Open your eyes…You are unfortunate, fair woman," she said after a while. "You will lose many you love, but on the other end, gain the greatest thing a soul can ever have. In you is bound the fate of your husband, your marriage, and both your rights to eternal life."

I had gotten up, shaken, but I thought nothing of it. Then Victoria spoke to me, saying "It was interesting to watch, but she seemed authentic. Many times I had gotten readings, but never have I seen someone use holy water or a plain glass ball, and never together. She is unique. Look into the ball when I get read. When you got read, I saw the water ripple with colors, but the images in the ball went by too fast."

Victoria had went and taken the seat. I watched the process of the woman crying out to God again. Did regular fortune-tellers do that? "Water, blessed by God, reveal through His might the future of this fair-haired woman, Victoria Orlandus, wife of Leon Orlandus, mother of Shippo Orlandus." It hit me then that we hadn't told her any of this. Did other people? "In this divine water, we will see the visions You give to us! I, a poor Jewish woman, a gypsy trained in the mystic art of divination, shall scry for you, a Christian, a wife, a mother!" I watched her breath on the water, watched it ripple, heard the woman tell Victoria to close her eyes. I saw the colors of the rainbow flow into the water from Victoria's side, like her future was being poured out. I saw the colors, liquid images of the future, flow towards the glass ball, crawling up into it, clouding it with white.

The colors separated, forming images. I saw them whirl though the ball, distorted by the roundness. The gypsy peered at them, some longer than others, but not long enough for me to make out. Then, she sighed, as if seeing a horrible tragedy. She lifted her hand, touched the ball, and Victoria moaned as if with headache. The colors retreated, flowing back to Victoria's side, and then the water was still, the glass dark.

"You are worse off then your friend," the gypsy spoke with a shudder. "You will lose he whom you love the most, and you will be faced with the bitter choice of going on alone or following him into the deepest of darkness."

At first I thought she spoke of Leon. But she wasn't finished yet. "Here you will need to be very strong. It will happen very soon, I deem. You will need Grace. Go and pray, often and long. Though business may be affected, it will save your soul from bitter torment. Do not let him go out, for it will be his doom. But this can only be delayed. As long as this will come to pass, which it will, you will need God's guidance. Do not put him before the Lord." Then Victoria got up, her face white, nodded, but the gypsy wouldn't have it.

"Sit down, Mrs. Orlandus! You and your friend must understand this: when this will come to pass, thing s already will have been set in motion which cannot be undone. The cathedral's presence alone will not save you, for in the end the Weeping Mother's doors will be broken by the battering ram of War, and demons and humans will fight for the freedom of their souls.

"For if you stray, the people of Heinrich will be cast into darkness as long as the New Wife is held in Schloss Nachtigall, and if her betrothed fails, then the darkness will spread with the army of shadows, and Vienna will fall, the woodlands of Austria will burn with darkness, consumed by the holocaust of the Devil's Subordinate."

Inuyasha went to talk with Miroku, who was recovering his strength with some herbal tea, sitting in a large wing-backed chair in the parlor in front of the warm fire. Inuyasha sat down on the chair next to Miroku's. Miroku looke at him tiredly, but managed a smile. "That's Sango's chair."

"Mine now," Inuyasha said shortly, making himself comfortable. "Miroku, I need to know something."

"Really?" Miroku asked.

"Yes," Inuyasha replied. "What the hell is going on?"

"Hmm?"

"You heard me." Inuyasha looked at Miroku with a piercing scowl. "All the time I've been here, I seem to be the most clued out. Kagome seems to know more than I do, and, no offense to her, but she's not quite... Perceptive of what goes on without being told bluntly she assumes too much. But she still is more adept to this place already than I am, and it's been less than one week!"

"All right then, Inuyasha," Miroku said, turning his chair to look at his friend. "What do you want to know first?"

"Perhaps what happened to this place," Inuyasha said. "Why is Heinrich like this?" He waited for an answer. Miroku stirred his tea, sipped it, patiently thinking about what to say.

"Well, Inuyasha, I suppose it began about fifty years ago."

"Fifty years?" Inuyasha looked at him as though he was nuts. "This all began fifty years ago? That long? Before we were all born?"

"Yes," Miroku said shortly, "fifty years ago. Now let me finish the story. Back then, Kagura's father, Onigumo, was the handsome new count of Heinrich; dwelling in Schloss Nachtigall back when it was still beautiful, untainted by the darkness. He took as a bride Kikyo Amelia, daughter of a wealthy man who owned a trading business on the river, not far from here. She went and dwelled with him, and they live happily for nine months.

"They were deeply in love, and Kikyo was about ready to give birth, having gotten pregnant on the night of their marriage. But, Onigumo went mad, for reasons unknown. When she was giving birth, he killed their son as he was coming out of her womb. Kikyo had nearly died to give birth to their son, but was saved by the doctors and priests who were tending to her.

"Onigumo slaughtered all of them when she was healing. They say that he tortured her, locking her in their bedroom for a month without food, and she was still weak from giving birth.

"Then, one night, he ripped out her eyes, and left her alone for another month. She wept even though she had no eyes to water, and, when he couldn't take her anymore, he hung her from a tree branch in the castle's gardens. She wasn't dead yet, though. Before he buried her alive, he filed her fingertips down to the bone, sharpening them to be like claws. Then he woke from his madness, and, seeing her tortured body, he put her in an elaborate crypt in the catacombs. She was still alive when she was sealed away."

Inuyasha stared at him, chilled to the bone. "What happened after that?"

Miroku sighed, closed his eyes, and bowed his head. "Onigumo died. He hung himself from the same tree, and was buried in a mausoleum under his wife's. The entrance was sealed up. But, apparently, he woke up, either because Hell wouldn't have him, and he came back, a new man, with an army of demons that came to him from all over Europe.

"He besieged Heinrich, and took another wife, and had Kagura. She lived with him throughout her early childhood, but her mother took her away when she was older, and they fled to Munich. Onigumo then became the vampire Naraku. He then manipulated the town, trying to rebuild the family he had before he went mad. He is looking for another Kikyo, promised to him by the Devil himself. Shippo is filling in the function of the dead newborn son. Victoria's function is unknown to me."

All night, Inuyasha, Sango, and Miroku were awake, trying to keep the house safe. But as the hours passed, they wondered where Victoria was, in her new dark glory. Where would she go now that she had falleninto the demonic ruler's power? They were so worried that they forgot about Kagome, all alone in her room. 

Kagome slept, uneasily, not dreaming. It was more like waiting, anxiously waiting, but for whom, she forgot, and so she was tossing and turning well into the night.

She was unaware of the fact that, when the moon escaped the clouds, a dark figure, clothed in shadow, stood in the frame of the large window, watching her, great wings gently billowing a breeze through white silk drapes. The figure watched her, waiting for her to see him, but she didn't, sleeping uneasily instead. _Let me in_, he whispered. _Invite me inside; let me get to you in reality_.

A forlorn figure he was, waiting on her windowsill, until, when the sun breached the darkness of the east, he was gone.

End of Chapter Six

A/N: That was long! Good, though. Satisfied? I am. This is a good launch pad for the rest of the story. Remember, if I can, I'm going to spread this story over many parts, which means many chapters! I'm so happy to get this far on BOTH! I'd bow, but as far as you know, I only exist on paper… err… computer screen. Damn this salmon craving! See you all in Chapter Seven!


	7. Rin and the Widower

Blood Of The Heart

A/N: ('-,-') Go to the fic! I'm too bored to speak to you right now!

Disclaimer: I do not own, in any way possible, Inuyasha and his friends, enemies, and anyone else. I rightly respect Rumiko for her wonderful work and refuse to be laugh-out-loud hilarious on this anymore. Ho-hum, ne?

Chapter 7: Rin And The Widower

When dawn came, for the first time free of clouds all together, Inuyasha was the last person to go to sleep. Miroku had drifted off not too much past three in the morning, Sango around four. But when the sun rose at six, Inuyasha saw it, hazily in his lack of sleep. _Why do I stay awake, _he thought, _when all around me sleep? Why am I the last to rest?_ The answers to these redundant questions eluded his tired mind. So, in his absolute lack of brain waves, he slept.

Kagome awoke when the sun rose, after her night of tossing and turning. But despite being a little more tired than usual, along with a little cold from her stupid idea of opening her window, she was fine. "Why did I open it again?"

Going down the hall, draped in a throw blanket, she knocked on Inuyasha's bedroom door. "Inuyasha, you vampire you, can I borrow a robe?" She waited for an answer, expecting a 'Go away, bitch! I'm tired!' Nothing answered her.

"Inuyasha?" She waited a little longer, knocked again, and tapped her foot to keep it warm. "Fine then, don't give me a robe! But you'll be late getting up!" Still no answer. So, defeated and grouchy, she went back to her room, muttering vehemently about stupid inconsiderate men and their refusal to help a girl out.

"It's only chivalrous! I know knights who are nicer than him, and they can be very haughty! When he wakes up, I'll throttle him…" And so she entertained herself until she was fully dressed- in an ugly brown cloak she had packed only because Inuyasha made her- and ready to face the world. _He's made me do a lot of things that have helped me,_ she thought. _He calms me down, clothes me, and cares for me. He is a great friend. But is he just a friend?_

She pondered this as she walked down the stairs, expecting to hear Sango bustling around the kitchen, baking bread in the bread oven, making oatmeal. But the house was silent. "Sango?" Nothing. "Miroku?" Silence. "Inuyasha?" Dust on wood.

"I can hear the war going on in France," she muttered. Idly she went into the parlor, where she discovered the sleeping forms of her friends, Inuyasha in a chair in front of the long-extinct fire, Miroku in another chair with Sango curled around him.

"They must have been up all night," Kagome said to herself. "But why?"

She sighed, gazing at the entwined forms of her married friends, and then looked at Inuyasha, alone in his chair. She then got an idea. _Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt,_ she thought. So, she went to Inuyasha, carefully slid in his lap, and rested her head on his shoulder, entwining his hands with hers. And so she sat, staring up into Inuyasha's sleeping face, wondering about how she felt about him and vice versa, until a loud knock on the door interrupted her. She carefully slid off of Inuyasha, intent to give him as much sleep as possible.

Tip-toeing towards the great front doors, she looked back to make sure that all three of her friends were deep asleep. As far as she could tell, they were. She reached the door, straightened herself up, and opened it.

"Hello? Can I help you?" She looked around the wide portico. No one was there. "Well, that was point-" She was interrupted by a large snowball, hitting her square in the face. "Pppghht!" She spat out snow mixed with dirt and leaves.

"Hello Auntie Kagome!" burst an excited little girl as she jumped from behind a column. She was in yellow and orange clothes, a great brown coat draped over her. On her brown-haired head sat a bright orange-and-yellow patchwork hat that draped down over her ears. She was laughing maniacally. "You look like you fell in one of Jaken's yucky pies!"

"Who says that they're yucky?" came a high- pitched voice from down the road. Then, around the low wall that surrounded the house, Jaken, in all of his toad-like glory, stepped forth, panting. "You are getting to be such a nuisance to everyone. Can't you behave and make life easier for me?"

"But you're life is easy, Jaken," Rin stated, batting her eyes innocently. "All you have to do is make sure I don't follow Lord Sesshomaru around."

"Lord Sesshomaru?" Kagome asked, looking at Rin like the little girl was nuts, which might not be far from the truth. "What happened to 'daddy?'"

"Lord Sesshomaru makes him sound stronger," Rin said in a stage whisper. "He wants me to call him 'daddy,' but I like 'Lord Sesshomaru' better."

"Lo and behold, Rin, he's right behind you!" Kagome said and pointed. Rin whirled around.

"Really? Where? He's not there, Kagome. You're such a bad girl, lying all the time! Like how you told the boy from the Wolf's Den that you were engaged to Inuyasha when you really aren't! We had to correct him and say 'Lady Kagome is engaged? No my fine young man, she's quite single! Don't take too big a piece of the pie! Go after her nice and easy.'"

"YOU SAID WHAT!!!" Kagome stared at the girl. "'Too big a piece of the pie?' You're even nuttier and more unbelievable than I am!" Just then Kagome remembered her sleeping friends. She quickly went inside to check on them, leaving Rin standing in front of the open door with Jaken coming up beside her. Inuyasha had rolled on his side a little, and Sango buried her head deeper into Miroku's side. Kagome came back to the door.

"What took you so long?" It was an icy voice, cold as the night, but belonging to a human. In his bitter glory, Sesshomaru stood before Kagome, wrapped in a rich black cloak. Kagome stood and stared at the cold-faced man with the long silver hair, holding in his arms the bouncing, brightly dressed little girl. Jaken was at his side, swathed in green, black and brown, looking like a piece of crap fresh off the pile, only with eyes.

"May we come in?" The icy voice went on. Kagome nodded, and stood to the side, letting the visitors into the much warmer entrance hall, where they proceeded to take off all of their layers of cloaks. Kagome wondered at why Rin was so brightly dressed. In Heinrich, nothing was bright except the garden Sango tended.

"We had a long trip in," Sesshomaru said. "We were originally going to take a boat, but the Mir is frozen now. So, we came in by carriage. Got here just at morning light. We passed a wrecked carriage covered in snow, which was, no doubt, piloted by Myoga. Am I right?"

"Err… yes… You're right," Kagome admitted, somewhat embarrassed. "It was quite stupid of him, really. It hurt, too. I have a hand-shaped burn now, and Inuyasha nearly got a concussion. Speaking of Myoga, I haven't seen his blood-sucking ass for two days now. Did you see him anywhere on your way into town?"

"No, but we met a fascinating young man who lives above the Wolf's Den. Apparently he thought you were engaged to Inuyasha. But that's not true, of course. It's not like it could be true, anyway. He doesn't have the guts to propose!" Sesshomaru smiled a little at this. "Ah, that makes me laugh. Pardon me for sounding like a bitter old man, but I haven't laughed like that since I lost Kagura."

Kagome just stared at him, thinking '_was that a laugh? It was hardly a grimace! Man is he pathetic!'_ "I'm sorry for your loss," Kagome said softly. "I'll help you find her, though."

"Oh! Did you hear that, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin said excitedly. "She knows where Mommy is! She'll help us look!"

"You told her about something like that?" Kagome shot a look at Sesshomaru. Even if she only knew him through Inuyasha, she still had sense enough to be able to judge his actions. Even if everyone thought she was a ditz.

"Why not? Every child needs to know to a certain degree."

"Yeah, Auntie Kagome! Even I know! I'm so much smarter than you'll ever be!" She laughed again in her bubbly way. "Daddy- I mean Lord Sesshomaru- agreed. He told me, in fact!"

"I can't believe I have yearning to strangle, throttle, beat, and win a knowledge battle against the same girl. At the same time!"

"He he…! I'm…umm… going to go find a room now, Lord Fluffy!"

"I'm not fluffy!" Sesshomaru glared at Rin's back as she went up the stairs as fast as her mini-legs would carry her.

"Don't eat me, Fluffy!" Rin cried, honestly scared, running up the stairs and down the hallway.

"Speaking of eating, I am very hungry. Do you got anything?" Sesshomaru said without emotion.

"Y-yes. Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha went to the market yesterday without me. Inuyasha thought I was sick and wouldn't let me go."

"Why? You seem perfectly fine. Maybe a little more sunlight though. Heinrich isn't being good to you is it? Jaken!"

"Yes, my lord Sesshomaru?" answered the lowly toad-like man.

"Fetch the luggage and bring it upstairs to our rooms. Once there, you are to help Rin unpack and load her clothes into the dressers."

"Y-yes, my lord." Jaken, being only about three feet tall and lacking muscle, could only stare up the stairway and loathe his bad luck; the stairs must have seemed a mile long to him. After all, not may people have second floors those days. Miroku and Sango were very wealthy. Kagome, revolted by Jaken's very sight, led Sesshomaru into the kitchen.

"I'm sorry that I can't get Sango to cook for you. She's asleep right now. I think Miroku, Inuyasha, and her were staying up all night. I find that silly. So, you'll just have to sit down and enjoy some of Kagome Higurashi's home cooking." With that, she proceeded to find her way around the kitchen, knocking over pots and pans, looking like an absolute idiot.

"Focus more, Kagome!" ordered Sesshomaru lightly. "You'll wake them." He gestured toward the direction of the parlor.

"Quit barkin' orders at me, alright?" Kagome whined. "I'm not that good at performing under pressure!"

"You'll learn if you want a husband," he said coldly. "No man these days will take a wife who can't cook."

"I can so cook!" Kagome glared angrily. "I just don't know my way around Sango's kitchen…." Sesshomaru smirked, a wicked smile and a haughty laugh.

"You are very jumpy, Kagome!" he pointed out loudly. "Calm down and focus!" He sat back comfortably watching her leap around the kitchen like a maniac.

"I can't! You're making me panic!" Plates and pots rained down on the floor. A great kettle fell on her foot. "Yow! Sango needs to keep the kettle over the fire and not over my reach! My poor foot! Ouch…"

"Poor indeed." He narrowed his eyes. He looked very dangerous, and very scary to Kagome. "Pull yourself together and get organized. Kagura was so much better-"

"While we're on the subject!" Kagome declared loudly. "I have a feeling that she's at Schloss Nachtigall!"

"The castle?" Sesshomaru sat up. His eyes were anxious for the first time since Kagome saw him that day.

"Yes," Kagome said, breath slowing down, calmness entering her. "The last few nights I saw a light in the tallest tower. It kept went out right before I fell asleep twice! She had a father there who died, right? She must have gone to the castle."

"Impossible," Sesshomaru said softly. "She would never go back there. Kagura told me she grew up there, with her violent father, a lunatic who rose from the dead. If he died, she would not go back. She knows he would come back again. Heinrich is so cursed to be ruled by that bastard over and over and over again, for all of eternity, at least until the Empire breaks. You and I will be dead long before that, though."

"Maybe, maybe not," Kagome answered.

"I'm pretty sure."

"I'm not."

"Shut up and cook me something you klutz."

"Go screw a tree and toss yourself off the bell tower of Notre Dame, you French butt-face."

"What's a butt-face?" The two just realized Rin standing in the doorway.

"Your father," Kagome said stiffly, and left the room.

"But I'm still hungry," Sesshomaru said.

"Go hunting, you lazy moron."

"With what, my hands?" He glared at her angrily.

"Treat your women right, Sesshomaru. I barely know you and already I want to leave Austria!" That must have shut him up, because when Kagome went into the gardens to think, she couldn't hear him anymore. She wandered among the mazes of flowers and shrubbery, all draped lightly in snow, yet still in full bloom. She wandered to the heart of the garden, where a fountain bubbled lightly in the middle of a small courtyard-like area surrounded by tall isolating maze hedges decorated with stone pillars topped with beautiful statues of nymphs and naiads. She sat on a bench and stared at the fountain, not seeing it, but seeing her thoughts.

_I can't believe Inuyasha is related such an ass! That man should be suspended by his pointed ears from a tree or something! But his daughter is so sweet, even f she is annoying. I am just so ticked though. If Sesshomaru is like that, will Inuyasha be like that if we ever got married? Wait a minute. Why am I thinking about this? Marriage? To Inuyasha? It must have been that dream I had. It must be. The one with that man…Naraku…I remember him now…_

"Kagome…" It was he; she knew it before she raised her head to look.

"Naraku… You're… real!" She saw him there, sitting on another bench, swathed in purple and black robes with amethyst patterns. "I thought I only dreamt about you… But you are real!"

"Kagome, I am not really here," he said softly, gazing at her mysteriously. "What form you see before you is only an illusion, conjured by my power and sent her to speak to you."

"So, you are like, a message… sent by the real Naraku?" She looked at him, wondering.

"No Kagome… I am a Golem… I was made by Naraku, and am manipulated by him. I am a creature of ash and dirt, given the illusion of humanity. Are you satisfied?"

"Yes," she answered, settling down.

"Remember what I told you? In your dream when I saved you?"

"You said… that I should open the window, mark with a red cloth, and let you inside. (That's why I opened the window!) Then we would talk about Inuyasha." She looked at him questioningly. "Why?"

"I came the night you opened the window, but you weren't awake to invite me inside… I won't come in unless you invite me."

"Why?" Kagome watched him, wondering what was going through the Golem's mind, what was going through Naraku's mind.

The Golem smiled, a kind smile, an ironic smile. "Chivalry won't let me," he said. Kagome giggled a little.

"You are _too_ funny! You know much, Naraku… You see much… You enter my dreams and save me from nightmares I can't wake up from. I wonder often about you, Naraku… Do you know that? I wonder who and what you really are, where you are, and how I can visit you. Why are you so infatuated with me, though?"

"Why?" He seemed taken aback by this question. "What do you mean, 'Why am I so infatuated with you?'"

"Well, you seem to have so much power… You're good-looking…you are chivalrous. You could have anyone you wanted. But you seem to be preoccupied with me. Don't get me wrong, it is flattering, but I just wonder sometimes."

"Kagome, do you realize it yet? Are you aware of the problem?"

"Realize what? Aware of what problem?"

"Kagome!" Rin's voice rang out, calling from somewhere beyond the hedge. "Kagome, Inuyasha _wants_ you! Really bad!"

"I do not!" Came Inuyasha's voice. "Kagome, come out from wherever you are right now! Sango is cooking something up that smells great. Sesshomaru woke us up, the bastard!"

Kagome glanced at where Naraku had been sitting. There was nothing there. The Golem was gone.

"Coming!" She left the hedge courtyard, walked down a path lined blooming magnolias and silver bells, and met up with them by the rotunda with the crucifix inside.

"Kagome!" Rin exclaimed. "I saw Jesus in there. He was a stone statue with lots of flowers!"

"I though it was creepy," Inuyasha said, his voice tired. "There is no way that Sango can keep all those dead flowers in there."

"I saw it a few days ago," Kagome said quietly. "I thought it was nice of Sango to do that, go through her garden and put the dead flowers in there. It's like... I don't know… special…"

"I still thought it was creepy," Inuyasha said.

"Like your asshole of a brother?" Kagome smiled hopefully, grinning at Inuyasha happily.

"Like my asshole of a brother," he answered with a grin, watching as she made an '_I knew it' _expression.

"What's an asshole?" Rin asked innocently, batting her eyes and looking from Kagome to Inuyasha and back again.

"Err… your father…. All right then. Let's go inside."

End Of Chapter 7

A/N: Hello! This is the start of a much more enticing climactic plot! I'm getting a little sibling! Yippee! I told all my friends already. Happy joy joy! My little sister will be its big sister! I'm so happy! Reviews please! I accept anonymous ones too! Before, my program wouldn't let me, and I got sad because I had so little. Then I realized I wasn't accepting anonymous ones. Wacky, huh? Anyhow, let's see if I can come up with more trivia? Who has the saddest story out of the Inuyasha group (who's got the best sob-story)?

A) Kagome- Competing with Kikyo for Inuyasha's attention? I dunno… Not much to say, really.

B) Inuyasha- Betrayed by his lover and stuck between her and her reincarnation…love triangles stink... And then there's the mysterious baboon…

C) Sango- her whole history brutally stolen away, along with bribery of a brother… She gets most of the torment Naraku dishes out

D) Miroku- he has a hellhole in his hand and is tormented by thought of a short life and a cataclysmic end. No wonder he wants to get laid so badly!


	8. Why We Must Listen

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Hola! Welcome to installation 8 of BOTH! This is goin' to be good (I hope!) Meep! I am getting more into the plot which means soon I'll need action sequences, and Oh dear things will have to die! Sob! Sob, sob! Anyhoo, enjoy this one, and send reviews! I love to here your feedback! I LOVE IT! ('-,-') Do it for Kitty! You know you love him! He is, after all, purrrfect! ; I'll stop now….

Disclaimer: I like the funny. Can't help it. So… I am sooo poor! Boohoo! If God gave me Inuyasha, Sango, Kagome, Shippo, and Miroku, I'd keep Kagome and Sango, give Miroku to a crowd of sex-deprived nuns, sell Inuyasha to the highest bidder, and give Shippo to Michael Jackson. I am so charitable, but Rumiko won't let me. TT

Chapter 8: Why We Must Listen

Sango did indeed have a great concoction of food, but it took her a while to find everything (Kagome's disaster). So, in the end, there was a tabletop full of plates of good food; Sango was a miracle of a housewife.

Right before everyone jumped into the sea of home cooking, Sango, who was seated at the head of the table, lead them in grace. "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Bless us, O Lord, and lease Thy gifts, which are about to share, from Thy Bounty, through Christ, our Lord, Amen."

In those simple words they all held the prayer that Myoga wouldn't show up, for, yet again, he was missing. They all then politely began to dig in.

"Miroku," Kagome said, looking over to him where he sat, next to Sango, "where is the blood-sucker?"

"Myoga?" Miroku raised his eyebrows a little. Why do you ask?"

"I haven't seen him," Kagome said softly. "I'm glad he's not here now -the food would be gone in a second- but I am worried. I haven't seen him for two days."

"Really?" Rin asked. "You mean the fat man with the pointy moustache?"

"Yes!" Kagome exclaimed. "Did you see him, Rin?"

"Yup! He was banging on the door of the Fox Den when we cam e into town. We saw him from the carriage, didn't we Lord Sesshomaru?"

His royal Icy Ass nodded. "He looked even paler than you, Kagome," he said with an undetectable smirk and a glance at Inuyasha's scowling face.

"Don't talk to women like that," he said, narrowing his brown eyes. In that moment, he looked almost identical to Sesshomaru, except for the hair and facial scars of the elder brother.

Kagome grinned a little. So he _was_ chivalrous. "Thanks Inuyasha, that was very kind of you." She shot a glare at Sesshomaru, and said quite coldly, "The ice queen needed to be shut up."

"Ice queen! Ha ha! Auntie Kagome, you're funny!" Rin giggled maniacally. She shut up in an instant when Sesshomaru gave her that disapproving look only a father could give. She squirmed uneasily in her chair at the table.

"Pass the steak please." Kagome gave Rin a piece of the large steak, the largest piece of meat the girl had seen off the cow, anyway.

"So Kagome," Inuyasha asked softly, "do you remember the name of the dark-haired man in your dreams?"

"Yes I do!" Kagome exclaimed. "I finally remembered! He name is…. His name is…. Dear Lord, it's on the tip of my tongue…" This had to be the third time she forgot his name! She just spoke to him in the garden! Didn't she? "And now it fell back into my stomach. Darn it! It slipped through my mind," she said softly. "I am sorry Inuyasha. I just never seem to remember when you as me."

"I noticed," he said with a slanted gaze. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, of course I'm okay!" Kagome answered loudly, starting to feel annoyed. "I look fine, right? Why does everyone keep asking me that?!"

"You're getting forgetful… And kind of jumpy," Inuyasha replied. "Are you sick? You're turning into a tomato right now, you know. Is that steam coming out of your ears?!"

"Now you sound like the ice queen!" Kagome yelled, her eyes on fire. She stood up and pointed at Inuyasha. "I refuse to be falsely accused by you, or anyone else for that matter!" Everyone at the table stopped and stared.

"Accused of what?!"

"I think I'll go feed Kirara now," Sango said softly, getting up and walking towards the cabinets.

"Stop, girly!" Kagome yelled, pointing at her. Sango froze.

"Is there a mouse?!" She lifted up her dress, and started prancing on her tiptoes. "Miroku, save me! I think there's a mouse! I seriously think it's going to get me! Ah! Something brushed my foot! Ah! A huge rat!"

"That's Kirara!" Miroku yelled as Sango prepared to kick away the poor little kitty in her fear. ('O,o')

Sesshomaru shook his head, stood up, and left. "This house is full of lunatics… Rin!"

"But I haven't finished my steak yet!" she wailed.

"Come! We are going upstairs to pack up and leave! Jaken! You come too!"

"So we came all this way for lunch, milord?" Jaken said, dumbfounded.

"So it seems! I thought we could try and find Kagura, but it appears we should stay at the Wolf's Den. Any tavern has spare rooms, of course, and with so few travelers coming into town…" Sesshomaru, Rin and Jaken the Toadman went into the foyer and up the stairs, probably for the last time during their visit.

Inuyasha sighed, stood up, and followed. "This is all your fault, Kagome," he said angrily. "I was going to help Sesshomaru too, you know. He's just mean because he lost his wife."

"And my father died in this stupid war!" Kagome roared. "I can barely remember him!"

"And my father and mother were hunted down by treasonous spies and butchered! Welcome to the club!" With that, Inuyasha turned on heel way from her and left. Sango and Miroku stared at Kagome, watching as she sighed, bowed her head, and left for the gardens.

"Kirara, time for din-din!" Sango said after they left, feeding the cat before Miroku picked her up, tossed her over shoulder, patted her butt, and took upstairs, where for two hours the house shook.

"Sesshomaru, are you really going to stay at the Wolf's Den?" Inuyasha asked when he started to help his brother pack up.

"Of course Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said, and looked at his little brother like he was dumb. "Where else would I go? The Fox Den is all boarded up and empty. The Wolf's Den is going to get big business without competition. Of course, that puts more strain on Miroku." Just then, they heard loud moaning, and then the house shuddered, silt falling from the ceiling.

"Yes…" Sesshomaru said sarcastically, "Dandruff for white hair. Absolutely perfect."

"Try it in black hair!" Inuyasha laughed. "I can't believe they're going at it so early, though."

"Well, Miroku does have to go on hero missions during the night," Sesshomaru answered. "The amount of children in this town doubled since I last was here. It's because he's out saving them every single night, even on the Sabbath."

"No rest for him," Inuyasha agreed. Louder moans now. "But he does get plenty of… exercise…"

"Yes. The best kind," Sesshomaru nodded. "But I'll bet you Kagura was better in bed than Sango."

"WHY ARE YOU SPEAKING?!" Inuyasha wailed. "TMI! TMI! TMI! TMI! TMI! TMI! TMI!"

"Well, she was!" Sesshomaru argued.

"And how do you know?" Inuyasha said vehemently. "Did you um…. Do…. Um… Sango? Were you and Kagura…? Swingers?"

"No, but Kagura moans better," Sesshomaru said.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This can't be in my mind! Polluted! Dirty images! Ah! Get them out!" He repeated banged his head on the wall.

"Inuyasha, calm yourself!"

"Calm myself? CALM MYSELF?! I should kill myself for hearing that!"

Kagome stood, once again before the fountain. Naraku was nowhere around. She sighed, and sat down on the bench once again. "I really need someone to talk to." She sighed again, and propped her head up on her elbows. She let her mind wander, staring at the fountain. It bubbled innocently, and soothed her. She watched it continue, and wondered why it didn't freeze. She stared at it, and realized suddenly, almost instantly, that the fountain wasn't full of water. She cupped some of the liquid in her hands, and took a sip. It shocked her so much that she swallowed it. _Blood._

Coughing, and sputtering, she bent over double over the splash basin, until her nose nearly touched the crimson liquid. She was shocked her hair didn't fall in it. Then she heard it, the familiar sound now associated with nightmares: weeping. She could hear it, from the other side of the fountain, and she walked around the circular base, coming to the other side. She saw her, for the third time.

The bloody woman was leaning over the edge of the fountain, as if looking at her reflection, but she cried, cried as if she could see herself. Kagome stared, fascinated by her. The woman then looked up at her. Instead of a rotting corpse, Kagome saw a beautiful woman, thin and ragged, in her bloodstained dress that seemed several sizes to big.

Her hands were in the water, holding something down, bubbles coming to the surface. Then the woman spoke in a voice so similar to her own that Kagome had to make sure her mouth was closed. "It's alright little one, hush, hush… Daddy will come by later, and we have to be read for him. We must prepare."

Then, she lifted from the water an infant, a small boy, whose skin was covered in the bloody water. He began to wail loudly, and the woman dried him off. "There there, it's okay. Taking a bath isn't so bad now, is it?" She smiled at the infant, and the infant smiled back.

Suddenly the blood was gone, replaced by water and Kagome saw the woman's beautiful brown eyes, large and very expressive, but firmly backed, probably like the woman herself. "When Daddy comes back, we will go into town for the day! Doesn't that sound like fun?" The baby grinned. Kagome smiled. Was this a scene from the woman's life? Was she a mother?

"Now now, I seemed to have missed a spot. Here, we must bathe for a little longer." Then, suddenly, she thrust the baby into the clear water, held him down by the throat. Kagome stared in horror at the baby's twisted, wailing face. She glared at the woman whose eyes were now red, who pulled out a long, glittering dagger. She raised it high.

"In the name of the Dark One, Lord Of The Night, I sacrifice thee in the name of the Shadow, the eternal giver of pleasure, bringer of earthly gifts, in the name of Lucifer, the morning star, he who has fallen from a pedestal of lies into the harsh darkness of truth, that thy father shall rise again into the power of darkness. Do you accept your role?" She shook the child violently, so his head nodded. "Then it is done." She brought the dagger down.

"NO!" Kagome roared, throwing her body in the way of the dagger. She ripped the baby boy from the woman's hand, and held him protectively in her arms. "What you doing?! You're his mother!" Kagome yelled at the woman, who seemed to have lost her mind. "Why are you trying to sacrifice your son to the Devil?!"

The woman glared at Kagome. "How dare you meddle in my affairs!" She said furiously. "You, a mere copy of myself!" Suddenly, her eyes flickered back to normal. "You have to leave!"

"Huh?" Kagome blinked. Leave? "Why should I leave?" The woman now had a face of pity, and dropped her dagger on the ground. She sighed, and sat down on a bench. Kagome walked closer to her, wary, watchful, like a nervous cat.

"Kagome, you must know something," the woman said softly.

"You know my name?"

"Yes…" the woman said sorrowfully. "I need to warn you… He is coming…"

"Who? Who is coming?" Kagome leaned closer. The woman looked around, nervously, as if wondering if someone was watching.

"You know him already," the woman said softly. "He will try to hurt you. He-" Suddenly she stopped, and froze as if paralyzed. She started to fade, her skin mottling, her eyes rotting, her gums and teeth rotted. "KAGOME!" She roared, and jumped on the girl. Kagome screamed, fell of the bench and land painfully on her back. But when she looked up, the woman was gone.

"This happens to me way too much!" Kagome cried. "What makes me so special?! What do they all want?!" She was now absolutely fed up with this place. Sure, there was evil, but why did she feel so persecuted? In her frustration, she wept.

"Kagome!" Sango was out wandering the gardens, snatching up dead flowers and gathering them in bundles to her. "Kagome, I know you're out here." Sango wandered a while around the garden, and then entered the hedged courtyard. There, she found Kagome weeping on a bench, shoulders shuddering and an angry fist pounding on the stone.

"Kagome?" Sango asked quietly, approaching the girl. "Kagome, are you okay? You look sick…" Kagome turned her head up, blue eyes watering.

"Sango, I don't know what to do!" Kagome sobbed. Sango took her friend in her arms, and sat with her on the bench. "I keep having all of these horrible dreams! I see a dead woman with claws and no eyes, I see a handsome man who wants to save me for some reason, and I saw Inuyasha as a vampire! And he tried to kill me, and the dead woman also tried to kill me, but just now she tried to warn me that someone was coming after me! I'm so fed up, Sango! I can't take it anymore! In a few days, when we can, do you think I could go to the nuns and talk with them?"

Sango held her best friend, rocking her back and forth, stroking her hair. "Kagome, we can do it today if you want to," she whispered. "The Church is always open for those who need its comfort and guidance. But it cannot protect us, try as hard as we hope…"

"W-what is that s-supposed to mean?" Kagome asked, wiping her eyes.

"The Church, especially the Church of the Weeping Mother, is no holdout for good or evil. Churches have become battlegrounds, been burned down, destroyed, and may times full of praying citizens begging God for mercy. A church is comfort, Kagome. Religion is what eternal life teaches. The only protection a church offers is that graveyards are usually built around it, and heathens, like witches cannot set foot on the hallowed ground, or else be turned to stone. See?"

"Yes, I guess. But maybe God is punishing me… Did I do something wrong?"

"Not that I know of. Did you have sex before marriage?" Kagome flushed bright red.

"I-I'm still a virgin," she muttered. "I'm getting too old to not be married. I'll be a hag in the next five years. You watch."

"I don't think so, but just to be on the safe side, go flirt with Kouga."

"WHAT?! He's scary! I don't even like him."

"Marriage for love is stupid. But marriage for money is ingenious."

"If I wanted money, I could've married Inuyasha," Kagome muttered. "Plus, Inuyasha looks a whole lot better than Kouga."

"Well, I frankly don't care about either of them." Sango giggled lightly. "I got the hot theologian. And I love him, and he makes money! Could it get more perfect?"

"Whatever. Maybe if you lived in Italy."

"Maybe," Sango agreed. "Anywhere but here."

"Sango?" Kagome turned and peered intently into her friend's eyes. "Did you have any nightmares when you first came here?"

Sango sighed, and nodded. "Yes Kagome, I did. You see, when I first came here, it was fall, and the demon army starts patrolling in winter, usually, according to the townspeople. But I saw a demonic wolf dragging off a corpse during the carriage ride into town, and I pointed it out to Miroku.

"He shook his head and shrugged it off as a dead deer. But you see, I saw that a part of the corpse had human skin and I noticed that there was a fingered hand on one end. The wolf was walking off with someone's bloody arm. Over the next few weeks, I started to have violent dreams about being attacked by ravaging wolves, but then was saved by a dark-haired man with amethyst eyes."

"Same here!" Kagome said. "The man who saves me in my dreams looks like that too!"

"Really?" Sango queried. "Anyway, the man pulled me out of the pack of wolves that was on me, and told me to go to Miroku, my husband, and stay with him. I did, and over the next few days, the nightmares ran away, and I was filled with a sense of peace. Miroku was happy to see me so happy. I don't know, Kagome. I think it was Heinrich's own personal guardian angel looking out for me. Maybe… for happiness, at least here…that's why we should listen…"

"Oh…" Kagome whispered, a pang hitting here. If Sango was so happy and didn't have bad dreams anymore, then maybe… she would have to listen to this man. Even if it meant not being close to Inuyasha. It was only for the winter anyway. When the passes cleared, she would tell him everything, and then it would all go back the way it was before, and they could go back to Munich, and live happily for a long time. At that moment, Kagome made a vow to listen to the voice of the amethyst-eyed man. She suddenly felt a little bit happier.

"Thank you Sango," Kagome said, hugging her best friend, before getting up and going inside. She felt so much lighter, knowing she wasn't alone, and now, even in this hour, she knew she had to give Naraku more attention.

End of Chapter 8

A/N: Konnichiwa, mina-san (I always wanted to do that)! Who wants salmon? holds up a huge plate full of salmon I do! downs whole thing, including the plate Sorry, but all you get is BOTH. Oh! Guess what? I'm writing up another story for you all! Don't worry Inuyasha is a hanyou in this one, and Kikyo has a bigger, more annoying role, and Kagome is…ridiculous as always! Heroines can be funny, can't they? Not the drug, you idiots! whacks the stupid among you upside the head with a huge typewriter Promise to read it and review it? At the end of the first chapter, let me know what you think about it, okay? Now for a new question!

Do you actually read the author notes? Say YES all in caps before the review if you do, and if you don't, then I guess I'll be able to tell. Oh, and while I'm on a role, how about another one?

Do any of you read Chobits? Yes or No please! But if you don't you need to! It is a very funny, and very romantic manga. I admit Romance is a good genre…TT weeps and waves white flag, but if you're not into it, it doesn't matter, but Chobits still is funny!


	9. Malicious

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Hola! How are you all doing? Well, I put up, decorated, and lit the Christmas tree all by myself this year to save my mom the trouble (pregnancy stress). But, for the first time in four years, I put up the Christmas lights, also all by myself! Yay Christmas lights! Ours look so awesome that, when people drive by, they usually slow down to take a look. Yay! Well, here is the tradition: ('-,-') KITTY! I am really serious when I say this, which is kind of sad: I CRAVE SALMON!

Disclaimer: What do you think??? If I owned Inuyasha and the gang, I'd be happy as hell to say the least. In fact, they're all going on my Christmas list!

Chapter 9: Malicious

Kagome went inside, intent on forgiving Inuyasha, then ignoring him. As she thought of this, she saw him leaving out the front door carrying a large suitcase. But before she could call out his name, he shot her a glare so cold it made her wince, and slammed the door so hard that two pictures fell off of the wall.

Sighing with regret, and muttering a "Sorry" that no one heard, she picked up the pictures and re-hung them. She felt a growing despair in her heart. She was too late to say sorry. But she would not give up just yet.

Pulling her mental self back together, she flung wide the front doors and walked outside, down the long drive, following the tracks in the snow made by a large suitcase, or perhaps several even, being dragged. She pursued the tracks into the street, and followed them to The Wolf's Den. After looking around once more to make sure there was no sign of Kouga, she at last stepped carefully inside.

Even at a glance, Kagome knew that Sesshomaru's wisdom about the pub getting more business was true; it was twice as packed as The Fox Den when she first came to Heinrich. Stepping carefully around various tables full of drinking men, she wandered up to the bar, looking for familiar faces, but saw none. She then peered closely at all the tables in the smoky room, but saw no silver-haired Sesshomaru or black-haired Inuyasha.

Remembering Sesshomaru's words though, she wandered to the back of the pub room, and saw a flight of stairs leading to upper floors, and a hallway leading to other rooms, probably the owners'. She quickly hiked up the rickety wooden flight, reaching the nearly silent upper floor in seconds. A single torch lit the hall, and dimly illuminated the doors of rooms, most probably vacant.

"Okay now," Kagome muttered, glancing at the various doors for hints. "Which room would it be?" She stood in the creaking hall, looking from door to door; afraid to open the wrong one and come across someone she might not want to meet…

"Hello Kagome." Like him… "What are you doing in my hallway?" Kouga stood at the head of the stairs, blocking her only way of escape. He smiled at her, his bright blue eyes luminous in the shadows of the hallway.

"Oh…Hello Kouga…" She curtsied politely. "I'm looking for Lord Sesshomaru's room… Do you know which one it is?" Kagome looked at him hopefully, but backed up slowly, trying to distance herself from him; she was, as far as she could tell, all alone up there with only him in the hallway besides her.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked casually, a dark smile crossing his face as he slowly, steadily approached her.

"N-nothing really," Kagome said with a small fake grin. "I-I got into a fight with Inuyasha, and he came here with his brother's traveling group and was helping, so…" Kouga had backed Kagome into a side table topped by an old ornamental silver bowl covered in layers of dust. She was now trapped.

"Kagome…" Kouga whispered softly, observing her, brushing a hand down the side of her face. "I know you lied to me…" He tucked a stray strand of her locks behind her ear; Kagome shuddered. _What does he think he's doing?_

"Why did you lie?" he queried in a soft, seductive voice as he kissed her neck, making her blood quicken beneath her skin. She was getting nervous now. He licked her ear, and nibbled on the lobe. Kagome moaned softly, partly in fear, partly in the unwanted pleasure.

"Liars are very naughty people, Lady Higurashi," he said, gently forcing a knee between her legs, backing onto the table and into the bowl. "Are you naughty?"

"N-n-no…s-s-stop…" Kagome felt herself start to shut down in fear. What was he doing? Why was he doing this when he barely knew her? How will she escape? Then she realized it: _the bowl! _She slowly reached her left hand down for it, and tried to move it, but he had pushed her into it too far. She couldn't move the bowl out from under her butt. She felt her fear pull into a solid object… felt herself build, and, with all the force she had, she slapped him, quite hard, across the face; so hard, in fact, that he spun around.

"Holy shit! What the hell was that for?!" Kagome, gasping in relief, grabbed the bowl just as Kouga came back at her. Quickly, she held it up. Kouga stopped.

"Don't you dare take a step closer to me," she hissed, "or I'll bash in your skull!" Kouga just raised an eyebrow at her; he obviously didn't believe she could do it. He took a step closer.

"Like you have the guts to hurt me," he sneered. He grabbed the bowl right out of her hands, and put it down; he pinned both of her hands to the wall with his left one, and began to hike up her dress.

"HELP ME! SOMEONE PLEASE!" Kagome wailed, kicking at Kouga as best she could. "INUYASHA!"

Suddenly, bursting out of the door nearest them, Inuyasha came. He stopped, and stared at Kouga and Kagome. Kouga scowled at Inuyasha and hissed, "Go away. Haven't you seen two lovers before?"

Inuyasha scowled deeply, his hands balling into fists; his eyes glinted dangerously. "Remove your filth from her," he growled, "or I'll castrate you and watch you bleed to death."

"Oh, _touchy_," Kouga said sarcastically. "You're not her lover!"

"Who says you are?" Kagome grumbled.

"Do you even know her?" Kouga continued as if he couldn't hear her.

"I'm Inuyasha Krischan, and I am her fiancé," Inuyasha hissed. "Now release _my_ Kagome, or I'll kill you very, _very_ slowly." He cracked his knuckles for good measure. Kagome felt her spirit lift, and she swore her heart skipped a beat when he said fiancé.

"Inuyasha," she whispered softly, smiling. Kouga turned to her, and scowled disapprovingly.

"You liar…you really _are_ naughty!" He smirked a little. "You are a spunky one at least, and very pretty. I like that in a woman." Kagome glared daggers at him in response, which only made Kouga smile wider.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha said, glancing sidelong at her, that golden glint still in his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, Inuyasha! Thank you," she said in wonder. _So he isn't mad? _"Kouga let me go!"

"No! You're _my_ woman!" He pulled her into his chest, held her there like a human shield. "I won't let that mutt of a man take you away!"

"_You're woman?!_" Inuyasha raged. "YOU'RE WOMAN?! Come here, you little piece-of-shit excuse for a whelp-"

"Ah! Don't hurt me!" Kagome wailed. She attempted to put her arms up to shield herself when Kouga swung her in the way of Inuyasha's blow, but her arms were pinned to her side by Kouga's strong hands. Inuyasha stopped himself before he hit her, looking for a way around the human shield Kouga now had.

He cursed in frustration, but then saw the bowl, lying on the floor in front of him. Quickly he snatched it up. Like a discus, Inuyasha threw the bowl so it rebounded quickly off two walls before hitting Kouga squarely in the back of the head.

The dark-haired youth with the icy blue eyes fell forward, on top of Kagome. Kouga was knocked out, Kagome hoping that it was for good; Inuyasha pulled her from underneath the man's knocked out body.

"Thank you Inuyasha!" Kagome wept in happiness, burying her head in his chest. Inuyasha was thrown off. Nervously, he made an odd petting motion on her back, and lightly gave her a hug.

"Y-you're welcome Kagome," he said blushingly. "I'm glad you're okay. You _are_ okay, right?" he peered at her worriedly, looking her up and down as though he would instantly be able to tell. It was enough to make Kagome flash a huge smile at him, turning the rather self-conscious man into an even brighter shade of red than he already was.

"Of course I'm okay, thanks to you!" she said, hugging him tightly. "Thanks to you, Inuyasha, I still have my virginity!" She giggled into his chest, the tears still coming. Now Inuyasha was getting confused.

"What? He was raping you?" Inuyasha looked at her seriously.

"You couldn't tell?!" Kagome fumed. "I was pinned to a wall and he had his knee between my frigging legs! Of course I was about to be raped! You're so thick-headed sometimes, Inuyasha!"

"I thought he was going to hurt you, but not _that _way!" Inuyasha howled.

"Why else would a guy hurt a girl?!"

"I don't know, Kagome! People are sick these days!" Inuyasha said in a huff, crossing his arms. Suddenly Rin popped out from the doorway.

"What's going on out here, Uncle Inu? What hap- Oh dear! The boy who likes Kagome is dead! Inuyasha, did you kill him? Well, you obviously did, what with that look of plain guilt on your face- No, don't crack your knuckles at me! That's such a bad habit, Inuyasha. After all, people get arthritis that way! Yes sir, that is a horrible…Ah! Lord Fluffums! Inuyasha's going to hurt me! Wait a second…you're a mean man, mister Inu; scaring a little girl like that. What did the boy do to deserve to die? Did he do something naughty?" Rin asked an adorably cute way.

"Err… yes…He was bad and had to be punished but he's not dead yet…is he?" Kagome said uneasily to the little girl. Rin huffed, looking annoyed.

"_I_ know how to tell if he's alive."

"You do?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Of course," Rin said in a prissy way. She walked up to Kouga, kicked him very hard in the loins, and when he groaned loudly, she announced with grim satisfaction

"He's alive."

Kagome sighed. "Darn it Inuyasha, you missed."

Inuyasha glared at her. "Missed what? You're insensitive ranting?"

"No. If I'm right in the head, I'm pretty sure that even _you_ heard it."

"Stupid girl!"

"Go to Hell!"

"It doesn't get much worse than this, Kagome!" Inuyasha growled. "I'm done helping Sesshomaru. I'm going back to Miroku's."

"Fine, but not without me!" Kagome pouted.

"Sorry, but I'm leaving you with Mr. Reinhardt and Rin-tin-tin."

"I like Rin-tin-tin!" Rin jumped happily.

"Anyhow, I'm still following."

"Prove it, wench."

"You're going to die now."

"Not if I get inside first and lock you out." Rin watched, amused as Kagome and Inuyasha raced back to the house. "Idiots… They're _totally_ into each other." Kouga stirred, and sat up, rubbing his very sore neck. Rin sighed.

"Lord Sesshomaru, there's a pervert trying to get me. Ah!" she said half-heartedly. Sesshomaru's head appeared in the doorway, and he glared at Kouga, cracking his knuckles in preparation of torturing the man. Kouga gulped.

"Ha! I win!" Inuyasha declared with a satisfied slump on the chair in the parlor.

"What took you?" Kagome said, already seated on the couch.

"You cheated…" Inuyasha huffed, glowering at the smirking girl. "You always cheat." Kagome shrugged it off.

"I didn't. I took a shortcut through a gap in the wall the separates the gardens from the tavern, and came in the back door. Ha."

"That's not the way you're supposed to take."

"You never said what route to take, so I still won."

"Grrrr…"

"Quit snarling, puppy dog."

"Oh, now I'm going to kill-" Inuyasha got up, cracking his knuckles.

"I was saved from assault, Inuyasha! Don't kill me now! I've got things to live for."

"Whatever… bitch…" he muttered.

"Oh, you're really chivalrous, Inuyasha! Is that how you plan to sweep me off my feet?" She raised an eyebrow, watching him, daring him to say anything.

"No. I'm going to find something to read in the library."

"Good luck," Kagome smiled, watching as he walked toward the library. She smirked, and began counting. "Three…two…one…" SLAM!

"Ouch! Kagome, do you know how dusty this floor is? Ah, my ass is going to be killing me for weeks!" Inuyasha could be heard, moaning, scrambling to try to get up. He must have succeeded, because he came walking out of the room, his butt covered in a thick gray layer of dust. "That's _not _normal."

"Neither are vampires."

"Speaking of which…you said, way back on the way into town, that you saw the man in your dreams for the first time… and he called you by…. A different name… What was it?"

"It was…it was… Hang on…Admit, I know this one…it's on the tip of my tongue…"

"Here we go again," Inuyasha sighed.

"I remember! Ha! He said Kikyo, you silly dog of a vamp, you!"

"What?" Inuyasha gaped at her.

"Kikyo, Inuyasha! Kikyo was what he called me." Kagome looked at him with earnest.

"Not that, you silly wench! _What _did you call me?"

"I WAS TALKING! NOW SIT!" Kagome roared, her face going green and eyes going red for two brief seconds while dark flames shot around her. Inuyasha sat (it was more like a drop, but for the sake of reason, we'll go with sat, ok?) down on the chair, eyes wide, jaw dropped to his chest.

"Dear Holy Lord!" he gasped. "I've never seen you do _that _before!"

"Anyways, back to Kikyo!" Inuyasha's jaw dropped further at this.

"Kagome, I hope, for your sake, that it wasn't Kikyo Lamarr." Inuyasha couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"He never said a last name…why?" Kagome frowned.

"Where's Sango?" Inuyasha asked urgently.

"I don't know. Perhaps she's in the garden?" Kagome sarcastically replied.

"Let's get her!"

_"What? Why?"_

"I think she knows who Kikyo is!"

"Hold on a second! Kikyo is a _real_ person?"

"Yes, Miroku said her husband murdered her!"

"Well, that's nice…so my dreams are mistaking me for a dead woman?"

"I don't know..."

"Sango, I'm so glad I found you!" Kagome said happily finding Sango placing dead flowers in the rotunda. "Inuyasha hasn't gotten to you yet, so before listening to anything he says, be aware that he is a nutcase."

"You think?"

"Sometimes."

"Sango!" Inuyasha said, coming into the rotunda from the opposite side. "I'm so glad I found- Oh man, she beat me! Anyways, I was wondering if you could find out how many Kikyos lived in this village."

"How the Hell should I know? Get one of the family tree books out of the library or something."

"We can't even walk in there, Sango," Kagome grimaced.

"Well, no one's been in that room for forty years. Of course it'll be dusty," Sango said as she placed down the flowers. "Excuse me, but I need a few minutes to pray. Leave now."

"Thanks for the help. Come Kagome!" Sango watched as Inuyasha threw the girl over his shoulder like a rag doll and ran inside.

"Miroku would laugh if he saw that." She glanced up at the window to her and her husband's chambers, and smiled when she saw her husband blow a kiss from the window. Then, she began her prayers for more flowers.

"What was the last name of that girl?" Inuyasha whined, looking at the huge assortment of family history books, all labeled with different last names. "This looks like… City Records or something!"

"Well, maybe someone important who needed all this stuff lived here."

"I need Miroku to find out Kikyo's last name was. He said Lamarr, but she married Onigumo Lamarr, so that must not be her maiden name. MIROKU!"

"WHAT?"

"WHAT WAS KIKYO LAMARR'S MAIDEN NAME?!"

"AMELIA!"

"THANKS!"

"SPANKS?"

"NO! THANK YOU!"

"OH! YOU'RE VERY WELCOME!"

"Okay Kagome! Look for the book of the Amelia family."

"Got it."

"Huh?"

"It was the prettiest, so I picked it up first."

"Women…anyway, look for Kikyo."

"Okay." Kagome opened the elegant volume, carefully turning the pages of yellow parchment. She went through 200 years worth of family and family members without finding a single 'Kikyo,' but when she drew into the last few pages, she found what she was looking for. "Inuyasha, I found the last part of the family tree."

Inuyasha perked up, and leaned over her shoulder, intent upon reading as well. Below the tree adorned with pictures under which names were displayed, there was a great paragraph describing the family. He spoke aloud:

"'_The eldest son of Clyde Amelia, Draco Amelia, wedded the daughter of the Orlandus family, Georgette, and had two daughters, one by the name of Kikyo Amelia and one by the name of Kaede Amelia. Status: Clyde, Draco and Georgette are currently deceased and buried in the Graveyard of the Lost, the old Necropolis being taken by the count during this time. Kikyo Amelia wed the count, Onigumo Lamarr, Lord of Heinrich, and had a son, who died in labor. Both are currently deceased. Kaede avoided marriage by joining the local convent. Because of this, Draco committed suicide, for he was hoping to have grandchildren, and was denied. Kaede is now the Head Sister, third only in authority over the archdiocese of Heinrich to the Mother Kordula and the Bishop Jonathon._'"

"Kaede's the Mother of the Sisters now," Kagome said. "No wonder she left for the Church wit a family like _that_. Wow! I remember that!"

"Well, at least we're not as screwed up as this family is," Inuyasha grinned slightly. "Wait… The pictures of Kikyo and her husband… they're getting darker..." Indeed, before they could be seen or looked at closely to make identifications, the pictures darkened, fading to black before Inuyasha and Kagome's eyes.

"Oh no… not again…"Kagome trembled, watching as the pictures, now totally dark, began to burn in their centers. "Not another nightmare…"

Inuyasha gaped at Kagome. "A nightmare?" A loud boom echoed from the book, an invisible force blasting the two into the shelf-lined walls of the library. The centers of the pictures of Kikyo and Onigumo erupted in flames, and book began to burn itself, fire trailing onto the dusty floor, feeding on the dirt, flames licking the marble floor, scorching it, making it too hot to stand on. The deathly cry of a dying woman filled the room as a tower of flame shot up though the ceiling.

End of Chapter 9

A/N: Hola peoples! This is getting good, no? But there are a few things that you must read on to find out about. What happened to Kouga? Is Sesshy going to kill him? How did Rin get so smart? Is Sango a freak? Where's the flea? What's Miroku doing all alone in his bedroom? And then there's the annoying cliffy… Read on. Okay, this is the second time I want feedback like this:

How do you rate Blood Of The Heart on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 the worst and 5 the best? Tell me in your reviews! Prays to get more See you in the 10th installment! OMG! 10! It's the double-digits! Oh, I'm so proud!


	10. Fire And Snow

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: This is for tyler-is-mine. Happy now?

Merry Quanzicanamas! I don't know what you all celebrate, so the whole world now must obey this new doctrine: QUANZICANAMAS (otherwise known as December) IS THE NEW HOLIDAY SEASON! Hey, I know! Try to say Quanzicanamas five times fast, ok? Drum-roll please… ('-,-') KITTY! I WANT SALMON, DAMMIT!

Disclaimer: Just because I write about them doesn't mean I own them…They just make great characters that are fun to mess with! So, yes, they were on my Christmas list, which I mailed directly to Rumiko Takahashi. Look that way! Wait a sec… there's a , a , and a , but no down arrow? I'm confused…O.O;

Chapter 10: Fire And Snow

As the fire spread across the dusty floor and the piercing scream sundered the air, a tower of flame, solid as iron, shot from the open pages of the burning book, hit the ceiling, and shot through, searing a hole right up through the house. Kagome, pinned to a bookcase by a strong invisible force, stared in horror as the tower ignited the plaster ceiling, and a dome of fire covered the room.

She moved her eyes to see Inuyasha, who was flung against a book case on the other side of the room before collapsing to the floor. And, as she watched, the edges of the spreading inferno drew around him, and she knew that if he didn't move, he would die.

She was the only one who could save him. She had to get off the wall.

Pulling at her invisible bonds, she knew that she was not strong enough to free herself, and her breath was shortened as smoke filled the air. That awful scream of death went on. The fire descended from the ceiling onto the upper shelves of the book case, and she was now feeling the heat from both above and below.

She struggled nonetheless, and, crying out to God, she managed to fall off the book case, a foot from the spreading fire on the floor. She ran around its perimeter, coming to Inuyasha, who was seconds from getting his hair burned off. Grabbing his limp arm, she dragged him as far as she could, which was only a foot.

"I can't get you out of here!" Kagome yelled at Inuyasha's unconscious form. "Wake up! Wake up!" Desperate, she slapped the man's face again and again, and pounded on his chest until she heard "Go away bitch. I'm sleeping…"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, tears streaming down her face from the smoke that now began to block her view of him, and she coughed violently as she beat upon him.

"Inuyasha! Fire! Get up! Please!" she wailed, crying honestly. "We have to get out or we'll die." The awful scream went on.

"Please Inuyasha! Please! Ferdinand the Emperor is dead! Wake up!" she said, knowing what would happen. Indeed, in the midst of the burning house, Inuyasha sat up, held Kagome tight and sang, "God be praised! He's dead! Kagome darling, don't you see? The empire will fall back into the hands of the Pope, and we'll be free! Bavaria will become her own country now! Halleluiah!"

Kagome laughed in relief. If Inuyasha would get up for anything, it was politics. She watched as he took in his surroundings. He looked unimpressed. "I made it to Hell, and, besides the heat and smoke, I'm fine. Huh."

Kagome slapped him. "This isn't hell! Miroku and Sango's house is burning! We need to get out!" Inuyasha gaped at her.

"Kagome, you get out. I have to go and get Miroku!"

"What?"

"He's upstairs!"

"O-okay…" Kagome stumbled into the foyer, which was steadily filling with smoke, and opened the front doors, flinging them wide enough to get a strong winter gust inside the house, hoping it would help to put out the fire.

Running outside, Kagome was met by Sango, who came running through a gated alley along the house's left side. She was frantic, distraught, and crying.

"What have you done?!" she cried. "What have you done to my home? To my husband?! MIROKU!" Kagome gaped at her friend, who collapsed onto the snowy front lawn, weeping bitterly, shrieking in fear and sadness, and she was horror-stricken. Kagome turned to look at the house. What looked bad inside looked worse out here.

The column of fire that shot through the ceiling continued, unbroken, up into the gray sky. Dark clouds from the north came down to greet the strand of flame, and the sun was knocked from its pillar in the air, and had fallen upon the roof, which was bearing a halo of dancing, burning gold.

The windows all along the house's right side were leaking smoke and ash from their gaps, and the shutters burst into flame. Sango screamed as she saw shadows flitting in the upper windows, where the master bedroom suite was, with Miroku inside.

Kagome knelt by her friend, embraced Sango tightly, held her weeping, panic-stricken comrade close, and she felt tears of her own stream down her face, and she then knew that it was a mistake to have forgotten to turn away Inuyasha before even stepping outside the Wolf's Den.

† † †

Inuyasha was slowly making his way up the sweeping stairwell to the burning second floor, which moaned and groaned and poured forth soot and fire to block his way. The walls up here that separated the bedrooms were crumbling in the heat, revealing their brick and wood insides, and the scattered bits of hay-insulation were fueling the blaze.

Pieces of the plaster ceiling in the hall fell on him as he stepped daringly into the searing west wing, where the fire held its source up here. The scream ceased, leaving him to hear the walls crumbling, the doors exploding, and everything else give way, except, miraculously, the floor. He made it to the master bedroom alive and, for the most part, unharmed.

Grasping the brass doorknob, he hissed as the heat burned his hand. He wrapped his hand in a bit of cloth he tore from his shirt. He then kicked the door in, as sparks rained down. A huge blast of heat hit Inuyasha so hard he could have sworn he made it to Hell's grinning gates. The fire's light beat unmercifully upon his eyes, the smoke plunged its suffocating arms lovingly down his throat, and covered his view.

Gagging, Inuyasha wrapped the rest of his shirt around his mouth and face, leaving room for his eyes. He tried to crawl, but only got so far; the floor was even hotter than the air. He satisfied his need by crouching, and scuttling through the room oddly, rather like a crab; but still he was granted no mercy.

_God! It's like I'm walking through boiling water. I can't breathe, can't see, can't bear my body to be here. Miroku, where the Hell are you?!_

"MIROKU!" A shrill cry from outside echoed. _It must be Sango. Wait! Miroku's not responding…I can't hear him! Miroku! Is he alive? Oh God, Oh God, what do I do if he's dead?!_

"MIROKU!" Inuyasha called as a burning ceiling beam fell in his way, breaking into cinders. "Miroku, answer me! Where are you?! MIROKU!"

"H-help me…Inuyasha…" came a rasping voice in a corner. Inuyasha turned, and saw his friend, a little black mass in the far corner of the room, waving a sweaty hand. Miroku was right next to the flaming column that went from floor to ceiling and beyond, right in the source of the inferno. Inuyasha stepped carefully to him, picked up his friend, and threw him over his left shoulder. Inuyasha grunted painfully.

"Miroku, you need to lose weight," Inuyasha said, trying to lighten the grim situation he was now in. Just as he turned to go back to the door to the hall, another huge chunk of the ceiling fell down upon his path, a smoldering mass in his way, with no route around it. "SHIT!" Inuyasha roared. Just then, an echoing boom with the force of ten cannons shook the house, throwing a cloud of smoke and flame up in the air, and ripping the floor out from under Inuyasha's feet. Inuyasha and Miroku fell.

† † †

Outside, Kagome and Sango felt a deep rumbling in the earth, and they looked at each other in surprise, then at the house, then at the crowd that gathered in the drive and stared in terror at the burning mansion. The two looked back to the house, and saw the lower floor full of darkness instead of flames, as if the fire suddenly was sucked in on itself. Then, all hell broke loose. From within the library, a great explosion echoed, and every window in the house blew outward at the girls and the crowd.

The upper floor shuddered, gave way, and fell in upon itself, and the fire was suppressed; the rest of the house was blown out, and the lower floor's walls splintered like toothpicks, and the entire mansion was laid flat, and from the gaps where the windows and doors were, great tongues of flame shot forth, and everything within fifty of the house was charred, including the vast garden, and all the plants burned. The sky was black, except for that single strand of fire, shooting up into the heavens.

---

In Vienna, the Emperor walked out of his home, sighing at how bleak the war looked. As he stared at the horizon, he noticed a great black cloud in the mountains, and among those clouds, a thread of fire in the sky. He crossed himself in shock and went to pray.

---

Sango stared at the still-smoking, still-burning remains of her house, a great mansion of ash, with only the stone bones sticking out of the rubble, twisted and melted in the unimaginable heat of the fire. Now, she let loose a scream that was so sorrowful, so hopeless and so lowly that it shamed Victoria's echo of her son's death.

And in this scream, no one in the crowd spoke, and Sango let her savage woes loose, and bitterly she wept, and she called out, in a ghostly cry that none shall ever forget, "MIROKU!"

And it never ended.

To this day they say, that at the ruins of the mansion, you can still hear her cry on the wind. Kagome took a shuddering breath, and let loose the name that no one remembered in this terrible moment, and she cried out with all her loving heart, "INUYASHA!" And she threw herself in agony upon the ground.

"What?!" came the man's harsh response as he threw off of himself a piece of a book case, emerging from the rubble with Miroku over his shoulder. "We're alright!"

"Inuyasha?" Kagome stared in shock, so lost at this sudden turn of events. Inuyasha walked from the rubble, shirtless, covered in soot from head to toe, and he stood if front of Kagome. "What?" he asked again. Kagome stood, stared at him, at his brown eyes, bright against his charcoal-gray face. She slapped him, hard, across the face.

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO US?!" Kagome wailed happily, thankful that her friend was alive. "We thought you were dead! DEAD!"

"That book case was heavy, and when I fell through the ceiling with this guy, it hurt a bit! Now go figure!" He laid Miroku on the snowy ground in front of Sango, who stared in open amazement. She looked down at her unconscious husband, and she was so amazed that he was still breathing that she didn't notice Mother Kaede running up the drive with a host of nuns and a horse-drawn cart. They immediately grabbed the man and laid him gently on the blanketed bed of the cart, and Mother Kaede grabbed Sango by the arm, pulling her into the cart as well.

"W-where are we going?" she asked in terror, looking back at her burnt home; tears welled up in her eyes anew as she saw her gardens, so well-tended, burning, blossom by blossom, tree by tree. She crossed herself.

"We are going to the convent house, where ye shall be safe," said Kaede, who looked with pity upon Sango, and great sympathy upon the ruins of the house and gardens. She looked over at Inuyasha and Kagome, gesturing them to come onto the cart as well. They did so, Kagome helping Inuyasha along.

"What is happening, Mother?" Kagome asked worriedly, glancing back at the ruins of the mansion. "Why is this happening?"

"Ye got too close to his secret, and he burned you," Mother Kaede answered. "I fear that ye were going through the library, looking too closely at some books…"

"I went to look up the family of Kikyo Lamarr," Inuyasha murmured, "and to see what this Kikyo woman looked like. Then, the book lit itself on fire and started screaming. I got thrown into a wall, and I guess I got knocked out." He glanced across the wagon at Kagome, who nodded.

"We must hurry then," Kaede said worriedly, looking up at the fading sky. "He will activate his plan soon. He will wait no longer for ye to snoop. Ye are in more danger now than if ye had nooses around ye little necks. Sister Margaret!" Kaede looked at the nun who was driving the wagon. "How much time do we have left to get to the convent house?"

Margaret looked up at the sky and said, "Not more than ten minutes." Kagome felt a dropping feeling in her stomach. She shot a frightened glance at Inuyasha, who looked just as scared. But was it an act? She stared at him for a couple of minutes. He looked back at her.

"What? Do I look like a monster?"

"How about _not_ giving her the opportunity to answer?" Sango said dryly, now back to herself knowing she and Miroku were safer. She was stroking Miroku's bangs with a cloth, cleaning great amounts of ash off his hair before wiping his forehead.

"What?" Inuyasha glared at the girl.

"Why, you're covered in soot, and I hope you get a good old scrub-down at the convent house," Sango said snippily.

"Pretty mean are you to the one who saved your husband's life!" Inuyasha growled.

"And the one who started this disaster by snooping! Now Miroku and I have no place to live! Our wealth was in that house! It's all gone! Everything! Just like Kohaku!" Sango ranted, crying again. "If you were looking up stuff related to the Count, you should've told me!"

"Shush Sango!" Kagome said softy, rubbing her temples in frustration. "This is a very big mess-up we're in now!"

"I know! I've lived here a lot longer than you have. I know more!"

"So let's sort this out and discuss it when we reach the convent house." Kagome was so confused. Why is this happening now? How can she be handling it? _What is going to happen next?_

"Five minutes!" Sister Margaret called out. "We have five minutes to get in the convent house."

They were at least a quarter-mile down the road from the cathedral's group of buildings. The horse picked up speed, pulling at a sturdy gallop that wasn't fast enough. The sun sank in the west, falling behind them. Yet to their north, among the towering mountains, Night brewed.

Descending in waves from the north and the east, it seemed that the demon army was right in the heels of the clouds. Howls from all over town announced the coming of the wolves, and people who were on the street heading home began to run, screaming, to the buildings that stood alone in barren yards, snow-bound and frozen, avoiding the shadowy alleys where the red eyes glowed.

"Two minutes!" They were just drawing up the front gate that lead to the main walk through the dead garden before going up the stoop to the convent house's door, beneath the words which resounded in their minds as the shadow on the ground ripped over the buildings across the street. Quickly, they hopped out of the wagon, and ran for the door, Sango and Kagome and Inuyasha helping to bear Miroku along.

"One minute!" The sun was gone. The last rays of light were banished as the shadow ate away everything, consuming Heinrich in a mouth of darkness. The Night was on their very heels, and they made it inside just as the last light lifted off the ground to allow the shadow to consume the cathedral and its surrounding buildings, and the last thing the light touched was the rose window of the cathedral.

Darkness had taken Heinrich once again.

Inside, the nuns led Sango and Miroku up the stairs to a well-furnished and very comfortable sick-ward. Not one patient was in the room, though it was full of comfortable beds with stuffed pillows and thick, warm quilts as well as bed-curtains.

"Ye all shall stay at the convent," Kaede said as the nuns left to do their chores and daily activities. "This wing of the second floor is all common-rooms and a small indoor kitchen. It is quite a nice area, but so few ever use it, since so few ever come here for sanctuary anymore," Kaede said, glancing at the weakened Miroku. "Alas, I fear that it will be frequently used again. But now ye must bathe Miroku. Lady Sango, there is a bathing room just down the hall, always full of warm water that is changed daily as you need it. You can clean Miroku there, and then let him sleep here."

Sango nodded, and looked to Kagome and Inuyasha to help her. The three managed to get the weakened man to the large bathroom while Kaede left. Sango turned to the two while she sat Miroku down on a plain wooden chair next to a great porcelain tub, filled with steaming water.

"You can go now. I need to do this task… Unless any one of you do…"

Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other, then at Miroku, then at each other, and turned green. "No," they said in unison. Sango sighed and smiled as they left. She turned to Miroku as the door shut behind them. "Okay, now where to start…"

-------------

Kagome was now back to remembering what Naraku had said. _This is all Inuyasha's fault…He's somehow behind all of this…_ "I don't know…It doesn't seem likely that this is all his fault."

But who was the one who made you upset and cause you to go to the Wolf's Den? Inuyasha. Who was the one who conveniently saved you from Kouga? Inuyasha. Who was the one who wanted to open that book? Inuyasha. Who was the one who was with you when it started the fire?

"Inuyasha…"

"Yeah?"

"Huh?" Kagome looked over at him. "I wasn't talking to you, you know."

"Well, sorry…" Inuyasha went over to a small porcelain wash-basin on top of a table, and used a wet cloth to wipe off all the soot he could get at without taking a bath. "Kagome, do you have any idea what's doing on?"

"Not really…Why?"

"Well, Kaede seems to know a lot more than she's letting on…Like why the book burned, and who's doing it."

"Duh," Kagome pointed out. "She's Kikyo's sister…And Kikyo was a very good person in life…"

"Do you know how she died?" Inuyasha asked quietly.

"No, but she lacks eyes and flesh on her fingers…" Kagome thought out loud. "I think someone gouged them out. A very painful and violent way to die, don't you think?"

"Well, her husband did it, hung her, and then buried her alive when she didn't die after all that…" Inuyasha murmured quietly as two nuns passed, going down the hall to several other rooms.

"How do you know this?" Kagome sat up in shock, and looked at him oddly. _Are you the vampire, Inuyasha? Are you the Count?_

"Miroku knew. H-he told me."

"Oh…"

"Kagome, do you have any bad dreams still? When the fire started you said it was another nightmare…"Inuyasha said softly, trying to change the subject.

"I have terrible dreams like that all the time now… It's really awful. I don't like to go to sleep. But I wrote all about them in my diary."

"Really? Well, pull them out and tell me about them."

"Inuyasha…"

"Yes?"

"I left my diary in the house."

- - - - - - - -

That night, no one in the convent house slept except for Sango and Miroku, the two who needed it most; Kagome and Inuyasha were on the verge of sleep, but still very much awake despite the beds, so comfortable, enveloping, and soft. But the demons outside slept not either. In fact, tonight they were louder and more horrifying than ever before.

The nuns were up and bustling all night, and Inuyasha, who left the door to the hall wide open, watched as the nuns ran up and down the hall, busy with holy water jars, crucifixes, and chains of silver that clanked and chimed ominously. The clouds seen outside before were gone now, back to Schloss Nachtigall to haunt the ruined castle. The stars glittered brightly, but away to the east, more clouds came. They were not like smoke or darkness, but like snow, and were gray against the moon and stars. Kagome, who's bed was next to a window, looked upon them, and watched as they covered the sky and the snow began to fall.

She was so tired, and the clouds looked as soft as her bed felt. She laid her head upon that comfortable pillow, and breathed deeply the smell of incense that filled the place; intoxicating and pleasurable, the smell was putting her to sleep, and before Inuyasha knew it, Kagome was soundly snoring the night away.

"Inuyasha!" came Kaede's voice from downstairs. "Where are ye? We need ye manliness! Get ye muscular butt down here and hold the door." Just then a low boom sounded. "Hurry!"

As fast as he could Inuyasha threw on his clothes, and ran downstairs, thinking _What now? _As she came into the tiny foyer, he saw about twenty nuns forcing their shoulders against the doors as Kaede stood right where the double doors met. She was flinging holy water at the wood in cross-like motions as the other nuns held crosses to the doors while pushing.

Next to Kaede stood an old, wrinkled priest with eyes that seemed to pop out, but that was probably because whatever awaited them on the other side of the door was giving out growls and roars like a beast out of hell. He was holding a great black Bible in his hands and praying loudly in Latin all the holy blessings and exorcisms there were to make the awful pounding stop, boom after boom shaking the room.

_It's like waiting for Victoria, only if she was there…_

"Inuyasha!" Kaede realized he was standing there, dumbfounded. "Come and push! A bunch of old women cannot do this on their own. Oh, and this is Father Totosai, so get along. Not that ye will interact much anyway. What are ye waiting for?! Get over there!"

So, Inuyasha went and pushed on the door, and the booms, though powerful, were lessened in the loudness. The strength of whatever lay beyond the doors amazed Inuyasha. The force it was exerting practically knocked the doors down with each hit; it was as if only crosses and holy water held the thing together now. Several times the force on the other side pushed so hard Inuyasha was flung off the doors for a second. He was so tired, and getting even more exhausted by the minute. The nuns' crosses and holy water seemed to be failing, too. Evil laughter on the other side, dark and dismal as from a coffin, lessened everyone's willpower to try and stop it.

"Kaede, does this always happen?!" Inuyasha growled grumpily.

"Never! This the first time the demons tried to break down the door! What do they want from us?!"

_I have a feeling…Please God, don't let me be right…Kagome…keep her safe, Lord. Please… Kagome…_

- - - - - - - -

Kagome… She sat up slowly, climbing out of the bed. "Who is it…?" She was just so tired. She had to go back to bed; she needed sleep, but that annoying boom…and Naraku's voice.

_Kagome, come to me…I'm waiting…In the church…Come to me, Kagome. Come and let me take you away…_

"Away…" Kagome whispered dreamily, moving about in a sleepy haze. "That sounds nice…Wait Naraku…I'm coming to find you…" Kagome moved out of her bed, clad only in her white nightgown of silk. She wandered to the doorway, and out into the hall; she turned to the direction of the foyer staircase.

Not that way…Come around the other way…Down the back stairwell…Kagome, my Kagome…

In her waking slumber, Kagome walked down the hall, took a turn, and went down the back stairwell, so cold, yet Naraku was waiting…She had to get him… The back door was at the base of this abandoned stairwell, rarely used and barred with crosses of silver and doused with holy water and baptismal oils. Kagome easily swung the doors wide, and walked outside, into the snowing world.

The back door led to a covered walk that ran to a side-entrance into the cathedral. She walked along this shining path, up to the locked doors that swung wide at her touch. The warm air from inside the holy building caressed her face, and she was drawn inside this temple of frankincense and blood.

The dim glow of many candles delicately lit the altar covered in Sango's flowers and the rows of elegantly carved pews that stretched onward into oblivion, lost amid the shadows. The stained glass windows shimmered like delicate mist, and the ornate statues scattered on the walls seemed to be alive, and they watched her with disdain as she drifted, silent and shining white, down the central aisle towards the stairs of the high bell tower, enshrouded in darkness.

_Kagome…come to me Kagome…I'm waiting for you…_

End Of Chapter 10

A/N: Hola! Long update, but I had some problems finding time to write (mid-term cramming). Anyway, I think I'll do great, but my lowest class is, ironically enough, English; so, that's going to be a gamble on my part. Anyways, thanks for all your reviews of Carol Of The Bells. That is now quickly climbing my priority list, but Blood Of The Heart maintains the highest standard. Anyways, good luck to all of you on every endeavor!


	11. Glass And Shadow

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: Well, its getting better! We're upon the shifting of the plot now! HAHAHA! Aren't you excited? Of course not…('-') KITTY! S-SALMON GOOD…Now, onto installment 11! Hey! Did you know 11 is bad luck in Fung Shei? Sept. 11 is full of 20 different reasons for being unlucky anyway… shudders I'll tell you more at the chapter's end. Ja!

Disclaimer: Do I have to? All right…_I own them_! Wahaha! Wait! Don't hit me! RUN AWAY! Oh well, I really do own them; honest! What are you holding that bat for? Why are chasing me with that maniacal look in your eyes? AH! A MUGGER! AH! You can't have them you cursing fool!

Chapter 11: Glass And Shadow

Miroku sat up suddenly, breath shallow and fast. Sweat covered his brow, and he was soaking the sheets with it. _God! It's so hot… _He threw the sopping covers off of himself and looked over at his beautiful wife as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and slipped into some boots, proceeding to get dressed. Sango lay, in uneasy slumber, curled up in the sheets of a bed next to his. Inuyasha and Kagome were gone.A dull boom echoed away from downstairs along with faint shouts and the unmistakable roaring of an angry Inuyasha. Miroku looked worriedly out into the hallway. He was still hot, and yearned for a breath of fresh air, but there was so much commotion out front that Miroku decided to go out the back door. _I remember seeing it a while back…where is it_

He stumbled in a feverish daze down the hall, took a turn, and found himself gazing down the back stair well to the doors that led outside. The doors were flung wide open, and thick, fluffy white chunks of snow were building up on the bottom few steps; the door on the other side of the short covered-path that led into the cathedral was wide open as well. An ominous and oppressing feeling of dread was building up in Miroku's stomach.

_Kagome._

* * *

"What- the hell's- going on- Mother Kaede!" Inuyasha growled as he hurled all his body weight and strength at the damaged double doors over and over again. "Why -aren't- they- leaving!" 

"I don't know!" Kaede cried over a loud and particularly frightening roar outside that shook the convent house from its old rooftop to its ancient foundation. "They are either really strong and resisting the power of the Holy Spirit, or they are really dumb and intent upon their own deaths. Either way, if they keep this up, there won't be a door to push against for long! Keep it up, Inuyasha!"

_I will, you old hag… But not for your safety, _Inuyasha thought grimly, his mind turning back to the girl whom he loved. _I do this for Kagome; I will die no for no war or victory save for Kagome. I will die for my love._

"Inuyasha, why are you slowing? Quit worrying about that girl, she's fine! Right now, she is probably safe up in the sick ward, sleeping away. If you don't use all your effort, you endanger _her!"_

"I know, bitch! Leave me be!" Inuyasha bellowed angrily, throwing himself at the door so hard his shoulder began to bleed. _Kagome, please be asleep; please…_

* * *

"Naraku, where are you?" Kagome called sweetly in a singsong voice as she reached the door in the narthex that led to stairs to the upper floor and the left bell-tower. "I'm coming…Naraku!" She was in a dream, a beautiful dream, and all about her was silver mist, and she followed this winding staircase all the way up to heaven, a Tower of Babel in Heinrich. 

Up and up, around and around this spiral stair, small stained glass windows passed her by as she moved higher, closer to the roof, and Naraku. She could not feel the chill from the storm as she went higher, not realize anything going on around her; this fantasyland she was in was all that mattered to her now.

* * *

Miroku ran into the cathedral, stood in the nave, in the center aisle between the pews that led up to the altar area behind a great wooden screen, and down the other way to the narthex. He ran to the center of the nave, where the arm-like chapels of the cathedral branched, one on the north side and one on the south. 

The dome of the cathedral rose above him, its golden underside dull and bleak in the night, with only scattered candelabra as light, keeping most of the painted ceiling in darkness. The light from the stained glass windows was faint and pale, moonlight in a darkened world. Kagome couldn't possibly see where she was going, but that made no sense… she should be somewhere in the nave, but she wasn't. Where did she go?

"Okay, so the altar area is sealed off… what do I do now? Wait a minute! The narthex! That's where she should be!" Miroku ran down the central aisle, and into the low-ceilinged entrance-area to the cathedral; but Kagome wasn't here either. He looked around frantically, peering into the dark, and noticed a door at the far north end, slightly ajar and opening upon a dark stairwell.

"Would she go up there in this weather?" Miroku asked himself worriedly, going through the doorway and running up the spiral stairs that went higher and higher into the left bell-tower. But he couldn't see her.

"Kagome! Kagome, where _are _you?"

* * *

Kagome wasn't even in the bell-tower at this point. She walked right out onto the snow-enshrouded, column-supported balcony-walk between the two bell-towers. In this silver dream on top of the cathedral, she waltzed over to the banister looking eastward over the village. And here, amidst the wind and snow that now came down in a blinding cloud, great red and black wings, cloaked with snow to look like those of angels', spread wide and swept a great wind downward, and Naraku was their owner. So he hovered, awaiting her, and as she stepped forward, he smiled a kind, yet oddly victorious smile, and whispered like the wind. 

His voice flowed around her like a calm breeze, and se heard, in many different, soft tones, "You made it, Kagome…. I am so very glad… Now… take my hands…" He held them outward to her, floating closer to the balcony, but not close enough for her to just reach out and grasp. Kagome came as close as she could though, standing upon the icy railing without a care, leaning outward without worry, arms outstretched, expecting to be grasped.

"Naraku, I can't reach you!" she wailed in disappointment. "Ah!" In a sudden gust, she stumbled off the slippery railing and back onto the balcony, landing on her back. "Ouch!"

"Kagome? Kagome, come to me!" Naraku cooed with a note of urgency. "Leap out, and I will catch you! Trust me!"

Kagome was painfully jolted out of her dream world. She woke, cold and nearly naked, clothed only in a thin nightgown, upon the narrow, soaring walkway between the two bell-towers, in a blazing snowstorm. And there, like an angel, flew Naraku, calling her, awaiting her. She stood up nervously, looking over the balcony's edge, down to the snow-covered ground, which must have been at least two hundred feet down. She felt nauseous, and her vision blurred.

"Come to me Kagome!" Kagome looked up at Naraku, ten feet away, flying. She gasped.

"W-what? Are you crazy! Fly closer!"

"I can't if want to stay in the air; for my wings will collide with the balcony and I shall fall. But if you jump, I shall catch you!"

"How do I know you can!" Kagome cried above the roar of wind and snow. "What promise can you give me?"

"I promise you nothing except safety from the vampire Inuyasha!"

Kagome looked pleadingly into Naraku's amethyst eyes, and he looked back into her own eyes, and he smiled a warm, trusting smile. "Kagome, in our brief relationship, have I ever led you astray?"

"I-I'm not sure…"

"How much has Inuyasha led you astray?"

"Well, one time he led me on top of a barn's roof and showed me a sunset when we were eleven, but then he pushed me off into a hay cart. I don't think I've ever forgiven him for that! Now I'm deathly afraid of heights! The cliff outside of town scared me bad enough…"

"Kagome, I swear to you that I won't let you die tonight!" Naraku said seriously. "Please, this is the only way! If you cannot trust me and I cannot trust you, how can we be friends? How can I protect you?"

"I don't know!" Kagome wept. "I wish this was easier…"

* * *

_A land of blackness, shadows and fire, and she was running, running, running after a flitting shape, just out of her grasp. She couldn't distinguish who it was at first; fire and smoke clogged her view. But as she drew near, she could make it out. She ran faster with anxiety, caught the figure, and stopped him. She lifted up his chin, forcing him to look at her, and when he did, she died. _

Sango woke with a start sitting up violently, screaming insanely. "_Morshin marsi harmenm bedwos delosta iurin tus nardin-_" she roared on and on in this language none on earth could understand. Her body convulsed violently, and she rocked back and forth for full five minutes before stopping in a sitting position, breathing hard, and crying.

"Kohaku!" she wept. "Kohaku…." She wiped her eyes on the bed sheets, and sniffled a little, sighing. She glanced around her; the room was absolutely empty. And Miroku was gone, clothes, boots and all. Inuyasha was as well, and Kagome…All her stuff was still by her bed..._Maybe she went to the bathroom… Inuyasha can handle himself…_ A loud boom and more angry voices, the loudest Inuyasha's. _Obviously…But Miroku…He's still injured! Where did he go! _

"Miroku? Miroku?" Sango decided to go husband hunting. She stood up, threw on a light overcoat and a pair of feminine boots, and stepped out into the hallway. Her first inclination was to go to the foyer. So she went to the stairwell, and looked down, seeing Inuyasha, a group of tired, gasping nuns, a priest, and Mother Kaede holding the fragile old doors closed as best they could while dark shapes moved on the other side, trying to get in.

She paled in fear as she saw demonic hands, bloody and scaly, slipping in through gaps in the quickly deteriorating barrier that kept all who were inside safe. She turned green as she saw the nun who piloted the horse-and-cart ripped through a tiny gap, blood spraying everywhere; the nuns moved as far away from that hole as they could, only to have one or two more ripped through at other holes. Screams of terror and desperate prayers rose with the acrid smell of death and the coppery smell of blood. Some of the nuns vomited on the floor, while others fainted.

The defenses were almost gone, and Inuyasha, the only man there who was able to help, held the doors as best he could, his shoulder bleeding profusely. He hurled himself bodily at the door, and the demons on the other side pushed back, shaking the whole building, and the candle-lit wooden chandelier in the foyer swung back and forth precariously crashing to the ground and splintering into sharp chunks. One bounced and flew into a nun's head, killing her instantly; and she was a very young nun, too.

"Oh my God…" Sango whispered, tears going down her cheeks.

* * *

"Kagome… She isn't anywhere…" Miroku murmured to himself softly. "How…how did she disappear on us?" He was in the topmost room of the bell tower, above the bells themselves, and four windows on each of the four walls allowed in no light except for the meager moonlight that sailed in the clouds of the storm. It was so cold up here; yet dozens of birds and scattered bats roosted up here in the winter, and the ceiling was alive with their movement; it was rather chilling. 

Miroku sighed, and went to look out the windows that faced south. Low and behold, as he looked out, he beheld Kagome, below him, in the center of the narrow, mainly ornamental crosswalk between the bell towers, and she was weeping, talking to a dark angel.

"Wait… That's no angel… That's Count Naraku!" Miroku cried in disbelief. "Oh good God, he's after Kagome! What'll I do, what'll I do!" Then it hit him; Tell Kagome! He flung open the narrow shutters of the tall windows, leaned out as far as he dared, and bellowed upon the wind.

"KAGOME! GET AWAY FROM THE VAMPIRE! GET AWAY!"

Kagome looked up at him; he grinned and waved, then repeated his message: "KAGOME! GET AWAY FROM THE VAMPIRE!"

"I WILL!" Kagome shouted back, a little relieved. She looked at Naraku and said to him, "Miroku says I must get away from Inuyasha; he must know that Inuyasha is a vampire."

"He is a theologian, and a very smart one," Naraku cooed in agreement. "There has never been a more intelligent choice; now, Kagome! Jump into my arms!"

"Okay," Kagome said, slowly getting into a standing position on the balcony's rail. "All I have to do is jump to you…a ten foot distance…over a ravine whose bottom is two-hundred feet down… I must be crazy…" Kagome was now balancing precariously on the ledge, and, as Miroku watched his heart pounded faster, and his eyes widened.

"What are you doing, Kagome?" he cried. "Don't go to him! He's the vampire! HE is the vampire!" But it was no good; the same wind that carried his voice to her was now drowning it and flinging it back at him. Naraku looked into Miroku's eyes, a smirk of victory on his twisted face, and his eyes flashed red. Miroku gulped. "Oh no…He's controlling this storm…"

Kagome clenched her fists, staring across to Naraku over that ten-foot span. She counted down.

"Five…" she squatted. Naraku moved the slightest bit closer; Miroku in his balcony leaned farther out, wailing at the top of his lungs, but she still couldn't hear him.

"Four…" She glanced down that great drop, a crowd of demons at the feet of the cathedral. She gulped, and her palms grew sweaty; she shut her eyes, and saw a fiery abyss.

"Three…" Miroku was leaning precariously out of that window, his hands the only thing hold him from falling; the world was now absolutely silent to her, no voices, no nothing.

"Two…" Thoughts of everything that happened in the village up to this point ran through her head, and she saw before her Inuyasha, shimmering palely like a ghost. And then, he faded, laughing, his hair turning silver and his eyes turning gold. She knew what she had to do.

"One…" She jumped.

* * *

"Inuyasha" Sango cried, running down the stairs to help her friend. "What's going on! What's happening?" The man just stared at her in shock, forgetting about the door until it was hit hard enough to knock him in his sore shoulder. 

"Ouch! Sango! Come here and help me hold the door." Sango came over, and pushed on the door's right side, Inuyasha on the left side. The door's convulsions when banged by the demons on the other side were less intense, and Inuyasha was grateful for Sango's help; he no longer needed to hurl himself at the doors.

"Where's- Kagome?" he asked in between booms. "How's- Miroku?"

"Miroku-is- fine," Sango answered exhaustedly. "I-didn't- see-him-when-I-woke-up-and-Kagome-wasn't-there-either. I-think-she-was-in-the-bathroom-but-I'm-not-sure."

"WHAT!"

"Is-there-something-wrong-Inuyasha?" Sango asked, looking over at the dark, shadowy figure with huge blazing aura.

"Sir Inuyasha! It is most unwise to go and stop holding the doors, especially when so many of my sisters are dying around you; now get ye steely butt back to holding the doors!" Mother Kaede yelled angrily as she tossed more holy water and holy oil at the doors.

"SHUT UP!"

* * *

"KAGOME!" Miroku yelled as he watched Kagome leap out to Naraku, miss, and disappear over the edge. Then, Naraku disappeared too. 

"No…"

Kagome had leapt, and realized in midair that she would not make it to Naraku. He stomach convulsed and she fell, an ear-shattering scream lifting from her lips, torn away by gravity. As she fell, she saw before the flitting form of Naraku flying, and, twenty feet above the ground, he caught her in his arms.

"See? I told you I'd catch you," he smiled as they soared up higher and higher, winding around the bell-tower; Kagome felt herself slipping away into her dream world again, the silvery cloud of bliss surrounding her as they spiraled up and up. "Deus vult," she whispered dreamily. "That is-well, you know… us…" Kagome felt her cheeks burning, but with love or fever she did not know. Suddenly, around them fell multi-colored shards, tinkling and glistening in the darkened moonlight.

"Do you see that rain?" Naraku asked.

"It can't be rain," Kagome whispered softly. "Wasn't it just snowing a while ago?" She looked up into his face, and she smiled. "I think you'll tell me though," she giggled.

"It's the glass from the rose window," Naraku answered as they flew past the spot where that great circular window had been; it was devoid of all but a few shards of glass along the edges.

"H-how did that happen?" Kagome gasped in awe; she peered through that yawning cavern, down into the nave of the church as they flew by.

"When you screamed on the way down, your voice hit the highest note a human can muster, and it shattered with a great sound wave; the glass was blown both inward and outward at the same time, and now the cathedral's floor shines like a rainbow." Naraku peered deeply into her eyes. "Your voice is absolutely beautiful, Kagome…likened to that of the angels in Heaven's halls."

"Oh, f'shaw!" she blushed, hitting him rather hardly on the face in embarrassment. "You say that to all the girls, don't you?"

"Yes, but this time I mean it!" Naraku laughed. "Trust me, Kagome, I've heard them; and you are a fallen angel in my eyes." He gazed at her again, and Kagome gazed back into those amethyst voids, at once both haunted and enchanted.

Miroku watched as the vampire-count flew around the bell-tower, rising up to be near his window. Miroku leaned outward, counting, timing the nightmare's flight. As the vampire passed his window, Miroku jumped out, and barely caught the vampire's foot; Naraku paid him no attention, however, being too caught up swooning Kagome senseless, literally.

The vampire obviously knew he was there, but considered him no threat, taking Miroku along for the ride instead. The theologian was in no position to do anything anyway; he was now hanging from Naraku's foot, dangling over a hundred feet in the air, and they were not going to stop until they reached Schloss Nachtigall.

_Now what have I gotten myself into? _Miroku wondered.

* * *

All of a sudden, the violent beatings the doors took at the hands of the demons stopped. The dark shapes disappeared, and an ominous silence was all that was left in the wake. 

"Is it…over?" Inuyasha whispered, peering through a gap in the door; he saw nothing, and it even looked like the snowstorm was over. Inuyasha opened the doors wide, and stepped out onto the stoop of the convent house; the remaining nuns, Priest Totosai, Mother Kaede, and Sango behind him.

The village was quiet; too quiet. All that was heard was the wind. Inuyasha walked boldly out into the middle of the dead front garden, laughed, did a goofy dance which involved shaking his butt a lot and biting his thumb, but nothing happened still.

"They must have left," he said loudly, "because if it was like usual, I'd be dead now, right?"

"Well, I think we were the lucky ones," Sango murmured, her eyes on other things. "Just look in the street!" And as the moon broke the clouds, the scene of carnage that waited was revealed.

Lying in the street were the half-eaten bodies of dozens of men, women, and children, all left right in front of the cathedral grounds, some bodies in snow-covered piles, others lying in crimson slush. Sango was heard retching, and then the rest went and vomited in the bushes, coughing up the fear and anxiety they had lived with for so long; for now, it seemed it was over, along with the lives of every being and fool in Heinrich.

"This is what I feared," Kaede, muttered, walking out to stand next to the shocked young man. "This is what I tried to avoid by not burying Shippo…We knew for a long time that Count Naraku would eventually get sick of us, his wretched subjects… If only they had listened when I told them to leave…every single summer…but now I'm too late…" The old woman covered her face with her hands and wept, hard and long, collapsing onto the ground in a shuddering heap of bloody black robes.

"This is not even my own blood, but the blood of my sisters…whom I lost in our battle for safety… And now it's over…it's all over." Kaede gasped and sighed, shuddering some more, before pulling herself together.

"There's nothing that we can do now except bury them," Kaede whispered. "_Deus vult_. God wills it, it seems. Let us start the process…"

"WAIT!" cried one of the nuns, pointing down the street. "Look! Who is that man?" In the moonlight, Sesshomaru's silver head glistened, and in his right arm he held his daughter, in his left he held a sword. Jaken was clutching his leg, weeping in thanks, and over. "Oh thank you, Lord Sesshomaru, thank you!"

Inuyasha smiled and ran over to him. "Brother! I thought you were dead!"

"Likewise," Sesshomaru said, breaking his usual coldness and embracing his brother as best he could while Rin clutched to him, sobbing. "Twice, even. I saw the fire through a window from the Wolf's Den; apparently you lived through that, but you only took an extra ten years off my life.

"Then, with what happened tonight, I lost twenty more. I will die tomorrow at this rate. Oh, but my dear brother Inuyasha, how glad I am to see you!" Sesshomaru pulled back, weeping from joy; it shocked Inuyasha senseless. "You are the last thing in this world I know for sure is alive, besides Rin." Jaken let out a loud and indignant "HEY!" at this.

"How did you live?" Inuyasha asked in awe, gazing at Sesshomaru's bloody clothes.

"Well, when the demons came, I could hear them downstairs; I grabbed this sword, the Tenseiga. Our father gave it to me, for defense against death. Used it against the demons; they fell quickly to it. Apparently when father had it blessed by a bishop and forged by a holy order he knew what was going to happen, but how I do not know. But, I managed to hold them off at the door to our room; Rin was sent to hide in the closet with Jaken and a few crucifixes. It helped too; the demons did not find them.

"And yet…I saw so many die, Inuyasha… It isn't pretty at all; I could have save many, but I chose to save only my daughter and myself instead. Petty, no? Alas the cruelty of this world; I lost my wife, my parents, and I almost lost my dear little brother." Sesshomaru calmed himself down, and resumed his normal, serious look.

"Was that a one-time thing?" Inuyasha asked, looking at Sesshomaru with a slanted glance.

"Yes; it'll happen next at your funeral."

"Don't come," Inuyasha said seriously.

"I won't waste my time," Sesshomaru smirked, patting Inuyasha's shoulder. "But I have a more important message for you. It's from Kouga."

"What?"

"And Myoga."

"WHAT?"

End of Chapter 11

A/N: Woe for you, because I'm so mean! lol…Okay… now to work on Carol of the Bells chapter 4!

Nowfor the...Poll: Is this action-packed and exciting enough for you? Si o No at the beginning of your reviews, please! LOVE THIS STORY OR NOT? Come on, be honest…puhhleazze?


	12. The Castle of Horrors

Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

A/N: A long update, but I've been busy attempting some other ideas, with little success. Guess God wants me to update. Anyways, you who have waited may be appeased or not. Oh, and I gave away my fung shei book, so the 11 mystery shall continue. Yay! Has anyone seen my salmon?

Disclaimer: After 11 chapters, this gets kinda old, don't you think? KITTY! ('-,-')

Chapter 12: The Castle of Horrors

Miroku looked down below him, watching the dull snow-covered trees go by. The vampire was swooning Kagome above, and the senselessness of it all made him want to let go, and plummet to the ground below, landing in soft snow. However, the sight of wolf-like creatures trailing below gave him more than enough incentive to hang on tight.

A brief pause in Kagome's flirty giggling allowed him to hear Naraku's words: "Behold! For Schloss Nachtigall's towers rise ahead. There is my home. It is beautiful, no?"

Miroku looked, and frowned upon the structure. It was decrepit, with rotting gardens, crumbling walls, and broken windows. But to Kagome, it was a spectacular structure of Norse and Gothic design, with a hint of Byzantine influence throughout the exterior. The windows were walls of shimmering rainbows, and the gardens were in full bloom, more spectacular than the gardens that Sango tended, just this past afternoon.

"It's beautiful," she breathed as the vampire swooped over a large balcony and landed, setting Kagome down in front of a pair of glass doors. He kissed her goodbye, and pulled away.

As he leapt off the balcony, Kagome saw a robed figure hanging onto Naraku's foot. "Miroku?" But then he was gone, away with the vampire. "Did I really see that?" She turned around, facing a line of French glass doors, all with curtains to prevent her from looking inside.

It seemed like she was just waking up from a fog; she felt the biting cold of the wind on her barely-clothed body, and felt the darkness around her escalating. She moved quickly to the doors, grasped the cold metal doorknobs and pulled them open before running inside. The doors slammed shut behind her, and she was plunged into darkness.

It was warmer in the room she was in, and she felt glad that her bare feet were touching a floor. Now she just had to find some light. Stumbling around in the darkness with her hands out in front of her, she found a wall on the far side of the room, and felt along it until she found what seemed to be a candle sconce. Her fingertips brushed over the wicks, and she felt that they hadn't been used in a while.

"Is there a match in here?" she murmured aloud, feeling the sconce's figure. Luckily, she found one, though seemed to have been burned already. She quickly struck the match against the wall and lit the candles; the light from the small flames dimly illuminated a bed, its fluffy blankets entangled around two figures engaged in acts best not described…. To say the least, Miroku would have turned pink at the sight.

The scary thing was that Kagome thought she recognized one them; the male one… She lifted one candle to illuminate the pair, and what she saw made her drop the candle onto the ground, where it cracked and went out. The male one could be heard getting up.

"Kagome," purred Kouga, walking closer to the girl, who backed up further, deeper into the darkness of the large room.

"Kagome, it's been barely thirteen hours… Already you come back?"

"Why are you here?" Kagome growled. "Why are you here with Naraku?"

The man smiled wolfishly. "A very long story, my pet."

"Since when was I your pet, you rapist?" the girl hissed back.

Kouga frowned slightly, his icy eyes, growing colder. "That's not very nice to say about the one who saved your life…."

"Huh?" Kagome blinked. _Where did that come from?_

"Didn't you get it? I was luring Inuyasha out so he wouldn't get the sword his brother possessed."

"That's the biggest load of bull shit I ever heard!" Kagome blurted angrily. "You were climbing on me like I was a fucking whore!"

"Ooh, big language…" Kouga purred again. "You're so feisty, Kagome… Do you realize how adorable that is?"

"Kouga, you're a real turn-off son-of-a-bitch."

"I love you too."

Kagome wrinkled her nose in disgust. "YOU-ARE-NOT-ATTRACTIVE!"

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not."

"Am too."

"Are not."

"Am too!"

"Are not!"

"AM TOO!"

"Prove it…"

"My mommy thinks I'm beautiful," Kouga said in a sad kiddy voice. "And so does yours." Suddenly the sconces along the walls caught flame, and the chandeliers that must have been in the ceiling burst into light, and Kagome was almost blinded. But she saw who was in the bed, still legs tangled in bloody sheets, bitten hands bound to the wrought-iron headboard, glassy eyes wide and dark, gazing fixedly at the ceiling: Lady Higurashi. Kagome screamed.

- - - - -

Inuyasha sighed as Sesshomaru spoke with him. "What I am about to tell you is not pleasant," his older brother said gravely, "but it will answer questions that I'm sure you have. Myoga has figured a way to get out of Heinrich."

Inuyasha's eyes brightened. "Really? How? Where is he?" Sesshomaru held out his hand, revealing a small flee, bouncing up and down in animated excitement.

"Lord Inuyasha!" squeaked Myoga's voice. "It's so wonderful to see you!" The flea leapt onto the tip of the man's nose, and bit into it. Inuyasha quickly smacked the flea, and he fell to the slushy street, diving eagerly into the carnage. "FOOD! I love FOOD!"

"Sesshomaru," Inuyasha said in an angry daze, "tell me that's not my real estate partner." Sesshomaru shrugged.

"He is what he is."

"H-how on earth did he get that way?" Totosai the priest stepped forth to explain. "Why, I turned him into a flea!"

Inuyasha gaped. "You did….?"

"Yes," the old priest nodded. "See, after making him smaller than the prey of the vampire's wolves, I allowed him to get to the other side. He said he would meet up with Sesshomaru after he brought back evidence of being out of the village."

"What did he bring back?" Inuyasha muttered sarcastically. "An olive branch?"

"No," the priest shook his head. "He brought back a gold coin."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"There are no gold coins in Heinrich because they are too bright."

"Oh; I get it…I only brought copper and silver like Miroku told me in the letter."

The priest nodded in satisfaction. "Of course. Thus, I now know that I can get people out even in winter."

"B-but…isn't magic devilry?" Inuyasha asked worriedly. Surely the vampire would figure it out…"

"No, I do not practice wizardry or witchcraft. I am merely gifted with theurgical power."

"Theurgical powers?"

"Do I need to repeat myself?" the priest bristled, annoyed. "I'll tell you more inside. Come; it is very cold out here, and you'll all catch your death."

The little old man led all the remaining nuns, Sango, Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, Rin, Jaken and Myoga back into the convent house. Some of the nuns were whispering about "leaving the bodies out to rot before burial." The priest ignored them, and led the group into the cathedral through the side doors. He pointed up at the shattered rose window.

"See that?" the priest bellowed. "They took her away. They took away Kagome Higurashi. Now she is in the grasp of the vampire!"

"WHAT?" Inuyasha bellowed. "NOOOOOO!"

"See, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru spoke up. "That's what Kouga wanted to say. He says he'll get what it his no matter what… He is a servant of the vampire."

"That bastard!" Inuyasha growled. "I'll rip out his throat! Kagome is MINE!"

Sango stared. "If Miroku ever referred to me as a piece of property…" Inuyasha didn't care. Understandably fuming, he went and started kicking a pew. Sango continued anyway. "I'd kill him. Wait; where is Miroku?"

Everyone paused, looking back and forth at each other, realization slowly dawning upon them. Their eyes, in one great sweep, went up to the gaping hole of shattered glass. Sango started to tremble. "Oh…no…"

- - - - -

Naraku sneered down at the theologian, who was leaning against a stone wall inside one of the castle's towers. "I don't take kindly to hitchhikers…"

"Demon," Miroku spat at the vampire, pulling a rosary out of a pocket. He held it out. "In the name of Jesus Christ, I order thee to stay away!"

The vampire flinched, eyes flashing redder, face contorting hideously. The great wings faded into shadow and disappeared. "It barely hurt me," Naraku hissed, stepping closer to the man.

"I condemn thee to be banished before my sights! Do not touch me!" Miroku roared, thrusting the cross flat against the forehead of the beast. A sickening moan along with black smoke floated through the air, and the vampire backed away, clutching his face.

"What in hell have you done!" Naraku yelled in pain. He pulled his hand from his face, revealing a blistering burn in the exact likeness of the rosary's cross. He tried to claw Miroku, but only managed to scrape at an invisible barrier. "Damn you! You're a friggin' theurgian!"

"Yes I am," Miroku stated smugly. "The spells I have learned from Totosai and Mushin have protected me from your armies every night. You'll never be able to hurt me as long as I have my radiance."

Naraku growled threateningly. "Eventually the sun must set, Miroku. And when it does, your radiance will fade, and I will have your head mounted in my throne room." With that, the vampire left the tiny tower-room.

Miroku exhaled a deep breath that he didn't know he was holding. He did the sign of the cross and slowly got up and went out the only door of the room, and began timidly wandering the terrifying halls of Schloss Nachtigall.

_God, please help me find Kagome. The sooner I find her, the sooner we can leave. Help us._

- - - - -

"I have to go get her," Inuyasha murmured in a daze. He, Kaede, Sango and Sesshomaru returned to the convent house, and were in a rather cozy library with a great roaring fire in the fireplace.

"If you do, then I'm coming too," Sango said determinedly. "Miroku has saved many people, and now I must save him. It's up to me."

"No, Sango," Inuyasha spoke softly. "I'll get him too. You stay home. You stay in the village. It's safer here, much safer."

"No," Sango refused, jumping out of her overstuffed armchair. "I won't be sitting around here waiting to be told where they found his body! Miroku is in trouble that he can't get out of. They are NOT just _your _friends, they're mine too! My best friend! _My husband_!"

Inuyasha stood up from his chair, and he towered over Sango. "I can't have you there! If you come, it's just one more person to be worried about!"

"Well, if it's okay with you two idiots, I'm going no matter what," Sesshomaru interjected. "My wife is in that castle, and I now realize why."

"Don't keep the rest of us in the dark," Inuyasha snapped. "Spit it out already."

"I won't," Sesshomaru wrinkled his nose. "You bicker senselessly when action needs to be taken. You should be figuring it out yourself." In a flurry of silver he turned and left the room.

Inuyasha huffed in annoyance while Sango turned and gazed pleadingly at Kaede. "Mother Kaede, what do we do now?"

The nun sighed, and spoke in a regretful tone. "I know what to do," she murmured, "But I don't want to tell ye."

"Why?" Inuyasha asked.

"Its' far too dangerous…" the nun huffed. "There is very little chance that ye may live."

"Very little? Sounds higher than Kagome's chances," Inuyasha frowned. "Are you going to hold out on us too?"

The nun smiled wryly. "Of course not. Ye are the only ones who may be able to save them…"

"How do we do that?" Sango asked.

"Ye must kill Count Naraku."

- - - - -

"That isn't-it can't be…" Kagome gasped, pointing at the bed. "My mother…"

Kouga sneered at the girl. "Oh, it is," he grinned. "That's your mother." Kagome cried out, and sank to her knees, wailing. Sobbing, she rocked back and forth, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"B-but what about Souta? What happened to my brother?" she croaked out.

"Eh, he was killed; Too much of a trouble-maker."

Kagome stared hatefully at the man, eyes in a rage. "Why the hell did you do this? Why in hell have you--" She couldn't complete it; she vomited all over the floor.

"Hey," Kouga shrugged, "I can do anything to your family that I want… Are you okay? You look ill…"

Kagome threw up some more, on Kouga's bare feet, making the man howl angrily. "Why the hell don't you take some panacea, you bitch?"

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"

"Huh?" Kouga raised an eyebrow, an amused grin on his lips. "No I didn't. You're delusional."

"Screw you!" Kagome shrieked. She up shakily, and staggered over to the bed, only to see it empty, clean sheets and pillows neatly made.

"W-what the hell?" Kagome asked in horror. "What did you do with her? Where'd you take her?" Frantically the girl tore through the bed, examining each sheet, looking for some clue, some hint, of her mother. Kouga watched her, laughing.

"Silly girl!" he crowed. "She was never there!" Kagome was quick on the ball; a resounding slap split the stale air. Kouga pressed a hand over his red cheek, a look of shock on his face. "Kagome… I like it!"

Kagome made a retching noise, and Kouga leapt backwards, a light growl filling the room. "No more vomiting. I'll go get dressed." And then he walked out a door, shutting it behind him. The candles in the chandeliers faded and went out. One by one, the sconce-candles with snuffed. Kagome looked around timidly at the darkness that already hung from the ceiling and was deepening around her. She made a small squeaking sound, and ran towards the door. "Wait for me, Kouga!"

She opened the door and stepped into a dark, richly furnished hallway with windows at both ends that let in sallow moonlight. As the storm clouds outside disappeared, the many doors along the walls were revealed. They all looked alike, and they were all closed. And it was likely that they all led to different rooms.

"Kouga wait! Kouga!" Kagome called desperately. But she was alone. She leaned against the wood-paneled wall nauseously, finally realizing what she got herself into. "Why the hell did I jump?" she muttered angrily, pounding on the wall with a tight fist of anger. "Why the hell did this have to happen to me? Why, why, why!"

She grabbed a light chair and hit it against the opposite wall. It went right through it, knocking a hole in the wood and revealing a secret passage. Kagome covered her mouth with her hand in shock, eyes darting nervously as she surveyed the damage to the wall. Already the mental images were rolling: _Naraku'sgonnakillmeKouga'sgonnakillmegottahideevidencegottahideevidenceNOW!_

Kagome looked up and down the wall; she saw a large tapestry hanging on a decorative wooden rail that ran along the crown molding of the room. Quick as she could in her little nightgown, she got it and dragged it over to the hole. Standing precariously on the little chair she blamed for all her problems, she tied the tassels that suspended the tapestry to the rail, not realizing that the tapestry was already covering another secret passage.

Of course she saw nowhere else to go that would be safer, so she went blindly into the tunnel-like passage, and lost all sense of light as the tapestry blocked the moon's beams. Though groping along the wall, she moved quickly in the dark, until all she could hear was her own breath, and all she could see was the velvety blackness of shadows.

- - - - -

Miroku had been walking for what felt like forever. The darkness was so deep and terrifying that he was forced to used a light-spell to see his way around, though it cost him precious energy; he could feel that his defense shield wavering. However, he desperately needed it, as he saw many smaller passages breaking off from the one he was following.

But his primary concern was finding Kagome, wherever she was. But, the passage suddenly ended. Miroku frowned, and pushed on what he thought was a wall. In fact, it was the back of a bookcase; it rotated outward, spinning shut behind him. Now he was in a small reading nook that seemed to be adjacent to two bedrooms: he had two doors to select from to enter.

Taking the one on the right, he found a continuation of the secret passage, dim torches stretching on endlessly in this corridor. Miroku stopped his illumination spell, and continued running. It was a straight path; to where, he didn't know. A boring and endless hallway; what was he to do? Just keep running? While thanking God for the apparent easiness, he was rudely interrupted when he was forced to stop by a wolf that seemed to come out of the wall at him. Growling ferociously, black and gray fur bristling to the touch, the wolf leapt onto the theologian and began biting at his arm.

"W-what the hell!" cried Miroku. He hit the beast repeatedly on the head as it came at him, and also on the nose. The wolf whimpered, but renewed its growl all the more, and sank its teeth deeper into his forearm, drawing blood. Miroku hollered in pain as the warm crimson fluid gushed down to the floor in quick spurts. His theurgical shield was only able to shield him from Naraku himself, not a minion under Naraku's control.

This was a big inconvenience…

Focusing as much as he could, the theologian forced himself to whisper the words to an offensive spell, gritting his teeth in pain as he spoke. Sweat dripped off his brow as the urge to fight physically was overruled by willpower. Pain such as he had never felt before shot up his arm in raging spasms from his palm. He ordered himself not to think about what the wolf was doing to his hand.

And the words flew past his lips; and with them went a tremendous amount of holy power, as Miroku released a spell the both obliterated the wolf and closed many of the wounds on his arm.

But it was too much power to handle. The theologian passed out in the middle of the secret passage, body barely able to support his shield of radiance. So it weakened, to the point that Miroku, alone somewhere in the castle, was truly in the shadow of Death.

- - - - -

"I can do that," Inuyasha said without a second thought. He got up and walked to the door.

"Wait!" cried Kaede. "Do ye not know what that demands? To get to Naraku, ye must face every horror of Schloss Nachtigall. If ye thought Heinrich by night was bad, then ye shall be shocked by the demons that walk by day in that place. The entirety of the castle is deepened in terrifying monsters, the likes of which you have never seen. Within the castle keep are kept beasts beyond memory, ancient things that we can only see in our nightmares, if then even."

"Your point?" Inuyasha asked.

"My point is that ye need the right equipment to make it through alive. That is all."

"Give me, get out, get on with life," Inuyasha muttered. "Then I can get Kagome back." He came back into the room and sat down. "Kaede, I'm gonna need a hell of a lot of weapons if what you say is true."

"It is true. And I know what to get you to aid in your search." The nun stood up, and led the two outside. "Though it is night, I have a feeling that you will be safe out here." They walked past mounds of bodies, cold in the night. At last they wound up before the ashy remains of Miroku and Sango's mansion.

"Why are we here?" Sango asked warily, glancing suspiciously at the nun. Kaede walked up the wide, ash-covered steps that once lead to the porch and the great front doors. She pointed at an area among the ruins, where multiple piles of debris stood silently.

"Inuyasha, go in there and search among the ruins. You will know what is needed when you find it." Though looking questioningly at the old woman, Inuyasha walked among the ruins nonetheless, and knelt down before one of the piles. He began filtering through the rubble. _What am I supposed to find?_

"What is the meaning of this, Kaede?" Sango demanded. "I know that you know what he must find."

"Aye, it is so," Kaede sighed. "The thing that determines his abilities and yearning to sacrifice himself for the chance to save Kagome must be strong enough to overcome _her_ thoughts, the way Naraku portrays her."

Sango frowned. "I don't understand…"

"When it is shown, then you will."

Sango pursed her lips in frustration. "Well, if you're going to be difficult about it…" This brought a light chuckle from the old nun.

"'Those who overcome their difficulties in a state of hopelessness might as well have not overcome them at all.' A thing my mother told me."

"I really don't understand now…"

- - - - -

Sesshomaru was walking up the long sloping road to the gates of Schloss Nachtigall, Tenseiga in hand. Cold as it was up here alone, he was colder. Golden eyes glared up the ruined cobblestone paving, the snowy road laden with the paw-prints of wolves. He was uncaring; he had no reason to fear. A quick smirk revealed lengthened canine teeth.

It was time for his revenge. Kagura's freedom was left to him to decide. The man frowned. The gates were shut. The tall, brown stone wall was silent, unrevealing. Decorative gargoyles grimaced down at him from the battlements. The wind blew softly through the bare branches of the trees; a hissing noise of whistling wood. The twin bartizans flanking the gate roughly thirty feet up the wall were empty; that is, empty of the living.

"Naraku!" yelled Sesshomaru. "I've come for my wife!" His angry voice echoed amid the jagged hills; but nothing happened. He had expected something for some reason; anything! Maybe a gargoyle would burst out laughing, or the bars on the gate would come alive and attack him, or a monkey would pop out of nowhere and throw poop at him!

Anything!

But there was just silence; plain, boring old silence. The tall castle towers were dark; no signs of anything. But as his gaze drifted up the topmost tower, a tiny light came on in its highest room. A figure moved past the tiny window, and then the light went out.

"Naraku, I _know _you can hear me!" Sesshomaru was angry now. Naraku was playing games. Sesshomaru doesn't play nice when Naraku tries to have fun. He ran at the gates, hacking at the iron portcullis with his sword.

"Open up, you bastard!" It wasn't working. He couldn't do a thing. He backed off, stalking sourly away, walking back down towards the village as the sky lightened in the east.

The sun was rising. A loud clank echoed, disturbing the quiet. Sesshomaru glanced back over his shoulder, and then paused in shock. The clanking continued as the portcullis rattled its way up into the wall. It stopped when its bottom-most row of metal teeth were barely visible.

He smirked. The gate was open.

End of Chapter 12

A/N: FINALLY CHAPTER 12! Aren't you excited? I'm glad I forced my way through writer's block; not to mention the fact that school ended today (6-16-05!) and I have officially made it through one year of high school. It felt so short for some reason.

Theurgy- the practice of using magic to manipulate the supernatural, or abilities that relate to the supernatural and magic, or seem to be such.

A nice little revelation, ne?

RATE THIS CHAPTER! One to ten, ten the best and one the worst. Okay? It took me long enough, right?


	13. The Graveyard Of The Lost

1Blood Of The Heart

By AriznGlori

Hey! Sorry for the forever-long update, but I had to get back in the swing of things, re-evaluate the style of my writing and so forth (it started to change in later chapters...). So it should be back to normal. ('-,-') KITTY! Anyhoo, salmon is great with hot sauce! Go! Onto chapter 13!

Disclaimer: I own the plot, the twists, the town, the castle, and Shippo's parents. I have very nice fox-fur hats.

Chapter 13: The Graveyard Of The Lost

The dark secret passage ended; Kagome found herself in another bedroom, dim, but not dark. The bed was richly draped in layers of sheets and comforters, with pillows that were enticing and fluffy. She suddenly felt very tired... At long last, she convinced herself it was safe; slowly she slipped into the bed, drawing the covers around herself. She didn't know the sun was rising, but she knew she had to sleep. Or felt that way, at least. She closed her eyes, unaware that someone was watching her.

- - - - -

Inuyasha finally swept all the debris off of a heavily scorched night-stand. The drawers were still in place and relatively functional. Inuyasha ripped out the top drawer, and out flew a red-covered book, an ink pot, and a quill. The book landed on top of a pile of ash, while the quill disappeared amongst the debris and the inkpot shattered against a stone column.

Sango ran over and grabbed the red book, opening it up; "It's her diary!" she exclaimed. "It's Kagome's diary."

"Don't read it," Inuyasha snapped as Sango began to flip through the pages. "It's rude." He snatched the book out of Sango's hands and began to read it himself. "Ooh, that's funny- no, she didn't- she said that about _me?_"

"STOP IT!" Kaede growled. "Give the book to me. Obviously ye can't respect another person's property." She took the book from Inuyasha and slid it into a pocket somewhere under her robes.

"The book is not important now; what _is _important is what is under the pile of junk that ye've been digging at. Keep at it."

Inuyasha muttered under his breath, but did what the old woman told him. He kept digging. As the sun began to climb higher into the sky, he managed to break through the charred floorboards that miraculously survived the strange fire. "There's nothing here but dirt!" Inuyasha yelled angrily. "I don't see what's going to help us."

"Keep digging," the nun insisted. "It should be under there..."

The young man rolled his eyes and muttered, "If I don't find what I'm supposed to find, whatever it is, I'll leave and go straight to the castle."

Inuyasha was just about to stop and leave when his fingers scraped against rock. But it wasn't really rock; it was strangely cool to the touch, and he could feel carvings. He froze; it was a great iron plate. A large plaque, and he was on the edge of it; his fingers traced the gently curving edge that vanished under more floorboards and dirt.

He eagerly traced the grooves in the metal, feeling out what he realized to be carved words, in what seemed to be the Roman alphabet. He grabbed a sharp, splintered piece of wood and dug ash and soot out of the grooves.

Kaede squinted over his shoulder, looking to see what he was doing. "What did ye find?"

"I don't know!" Inuyasha answered, unable to keep his excitement out of his voice. "But whatever it is, it's important!"

"I'll help!" Sango said eagerly; after seeing what Inuyasha had found, she grabbed another splinter of wood and rushed over to help him uncover the plate. After another hour of digging, they uncovered the large plate. It turned out to be roughly seven feet across, a great, elaborate pentacle carved into its surface, fringed with Latin words. Its rugged surface seemed to gleam in some spots, as though it was polished a long time ago and then scratched up.

"What do you think it is?" Sango asked in excitement that almost matched Inuyasha's.

"Cool," Inuyasha stated; "literally cool..."

"But not cold," Kaede said, hobbling over to look at the completed excavation. "This is a seal."

"B-but how-?" Sango asked, gazing at the nun questioningly. "Why is it here? What did it do? Who the hell buried it here?"

"So many questions," Kaede clucked her tongue. "Miroku talked a lot less."

Sango gasped. "Miroku knew this was here?"

"He needed to know, ye did not." The nun held up her hand when Sango started to speak again. "Ye know Miroku is a theologian, yes?"

"Yes," Sango said slowly.

"He is also a theurgian." Sango stared at the woman in shock. "A theurgian? Like the priest who turned Myoga into a flea?"

"Miroku has been studying with Father Totosai and his own stepfather Mushin in Vienna. However, Mushin has a professional career within the circles of the Hapsburgs that demands more time than he can spare. He did know Father Totosai, who lived here in Heinrich, as well as knowing that he was also a theurgian. Being a priest in the winter season, with little else to do, he figured that Miroku could get better tutoring here until spring and summer."

Sango frowned. "I wondered why he didn't buy that house in Vienna..."

"Ye see, theurgy is a little-known practice amongst Christians, and it requires much skill and concentration. Magic is, of course, dangerous, for it calls upon one of the Higher Forces to grant power to the wielder. A witch or warlock would summon their power from Satan, whereas theurgians would summon theirs from God."

"How does that demand more concentration and power? Can't I just ask God to do something for me or whatever?" Inuyasha asked skeptically.

"It isn't so easy. Theurgians must know who is trying to give them the power they must seek Satan is the Prince of Lies; he tries to deceive the wielder into thinking they are trusting someone other than him. He is a formidable opponent that way, for few know they are calling upon him when they do. A theurgian must learn to know who is God and who is Satan, and that can be very difficult.

"Witches and warlocks often start out seeking power for the purpose of good, but end up falling into darkness. Power is both seductive and addictive; unless ye can detach yerself from it, it will devour ye. Ye will do anything to get it. Ye will turn to the Darkness to get the same feeling that good power gives you..."

Inuyasha and Sango were silent, trying to digest Kaede's words. But then Sango spoke up. "So- Mother Kaede- if I try to call upon God's powers to assist with something, then I must be very careful because...it could be the devil in disguise?"

"Yes."

"Then, isn't it better to _not_ use magic?"

"Usually..."

"But there must be exceptions, then," Inuyasha said. "Like Heinrich itself... Miroku must be the only one who can save people trapped when the night falls... because... his spells can shield him from evil..."

"Yes," Kaede smiled. "Ye're getting it at last. Though it's technically God's spells. A great number are in Latin."

"It could be that the spells are just requests in Latin... Since Latin was so important with the Ancient Roman Empire," Sango pointed out.

"It is important with the Holy Roman Empire..." Kaede trailed off.

"Maybe the right word isn't 'spell,'" Inuyasha murmured. "It could just be the 'right way to ask.'"

"So, this pentacle-plaque thing"-Sango gestured at said object- "it seals off something?"

"Yes,"Kaede said. "But it can be hard to tell if it seals off what's below it or wards away what is above it."

"How can you tell?" Inuyasha asked.

"If it seals off what is below it, it must be written backwards on the side facing up."

"What is?" asked Sango.

"The spell!" Kaede said indignantly. "Yer head must not be screwed on right or something..."

"I'm not that good with Latin..." Inuyasha murmured. "I prefer German or English..."

"Italian and French are okay," Sango pointed out. "They're much easier to learn." She turned to the nun. "Mother Kaede, do you know how to read Latin?"

"I'm rusty with it," the nun said defensively. "Honestly, ye young people need to learn more of it."

"You don't know a thing about it, do you?" Inuyasha said dryly

"Er.. No."

"Great! Just great! We're screwed!" Sango flustered.

"What's so important about this damn pentacle anyway?" Inuyasha muttered. "It's just a piece of metal for all we know."

"For all _ye _know," Kaede said smugly. "I know what it is for. My family also has a history of theurgical powers. Ye see, Totosai and I are related. He is my second-cousin. My great-uncle, Matthias brother to Clyde Amelia, is Totosai's father. So, we're related."

"Okay," Inuyasha said. "So... you're family put this here?"

"This house is the old Amelia mansion, and it was much older than the castle, even. All the town's governmental decisions were made here, before Schloss Nachtigall was raised. See, it was built originally in nine thirty-five AD, hundreds of years ago. The castle was erected in eleven ninety-six AD, about four-hundred and forty-five years ago.

"The house was kept up as a ceremonial records building until Miroku bought it from the city. Now, it's all gone." Kaede sighed. "My sister and I grew up here, and loved it here. Her room was upstairs, and had a view of the castle."

"That was Kagome's room..." Sango gasped. "The ghost of the clawed woman that she spoke of... in the maze at the fountain..."

"She loved the maze," Kaede said dreamily. It was her wish to baptize her son in it. She was to have Totosai bless the water, of course. A life before all the demons, all the monsters. After Kikyo left, her room was made smaller to form a bathroom and a closet. I think it was also redecorated... the whole house was, actually. Around the time that the Fox Den got some renovations as well..."

"Everything that Kagome said... the dream, the man with the amethyst eyes..." Sango whispered in blood-curdling realization.

"Onigumo had lovely amethyst eyes," Kaede said, alarmed. "What are ye getting at?"

"I-I told her..." Sango trembled. "I told her to listen... I told her..." She managed to pull herself together, slowly. She looked over at Inuyasha. "We have to get them back."

- - - - -

Miroku woke up, slowly. He couldn't see, it was so dark. He wasn't lying down on the ground, passed out. He was instead suspended from chains, dangling from the ceiling, gazing down at what appeared to be a torture chamber. He gulped in fear. This could not be good. He glanced over at his gloved hand worriedly. He couldn't grasp at the rosary that was wrapped around it. If only he could reach...

Somebody walked into the room through the thick wooden door below him. Miroku could only see the dark-brown hair of the person below him. He remained absolutely still, for fear it was someone he didn't want to meet in his predicament. But as he gazed at the person moving through the room, fingering sharp and dangerous tools, he realized who it was.

"KOUGA!" he called in relief. "I'm up here!" The man below glanced up at him.

"I know," he said, his voice colder than his icy-blue eyes. "I put you there." Miroku's heart beat faster. _Oh God, he's with the vampire...I didn't ward him off..._

"Kouga, w-why are you here? What are you going to do with that very sharp dagger that you're fingering tauntingly?" Miroku smiled weakly, nervously, couldfeel sweat dripping off his brow and watching as it fell to the ground below him.

"Why, this is a torture-chamber, Miroku," Kouga grinned, flashing wolfish fangs at the theurgian. "I'll be your tormentor for this evening-" He smiled, walked over to the winch that worked the chains that held Miroku up.

"No," pleaded the theologian.

"And I'll be you're life-" he loosened the chains, and his eyes lit up as Miroku swung like a humanoid chandelier.

"Don't," he begged.

"And I'll be you're death-" he said with a matter-of-fact manner in his voice; he pulled the lock off the winch. Its handle spun wildly as Miroku fell twenty feet, and hit the stone floor with a sickening thud. Kouga spun the winch so Miroku was pulled back up to the ceiling again. Miroku's breathing was rattling, his body shaking, his nose broken. He moaned and wept.

"Don't do it, Kouga..." he sobbed.

"And I'll be your god." Kouga let the winch spin freely again.

"KOUGA!" Miroku screamed as he plummeted to the floor again, his ribs breaking like sticks. Then he didn't move.

"Sweet dreams, Miroku Josif." The man turned and walked out of the room, extinguishing the torches that lit the room as he left. He swung the door shut and locked it.

- - - - -

Kagome woke, rested, happier, the sun gleaming brightly through the window; the clouds were starting to clear up as the sky was revealed for the second time since she had been in Heinrich. Her window afforded views of the town; it once again looked like a picture of sorts. "It's beautiful..."

"It is indeed," the voice of Naraku whispered in her ear. "Come, Kagome; you must get dressed. I will wait for you in the dining room; it's just down the hall there-" he gestured at the door to the hallway. "Breakfast is waiting for us." He disappeared.

Kagome gave a dreamy sigh. "Maybe it won't be so bad," she said to herself. "I haven't seen Kouga since last night..." she trailed off, trying not to remember how Kouga had mocked her and molested her, both mentally and emotionally.

She went over to an armoire that was placed where she had entered the room, through the secret passage. She opened it, and found it full of beautiful dresses, many of them white or red. She frowned; it was breakfast, not a date. She dug through all the clothes, and found a nice winter dress, with sleeves, made of velvet. It was a light peachy pink, with red trim and fuzzy white collar, hem, and cuffs.

It fit well; too well. So well, in fact, that she wondered if she was measured when she slept. It wouldn't surprise her, what with Kouga seeming to know his way around so well. After slipping on a pair of shoes, she walked carefully out of the room.

The hallway was well-furnished, white-paneled, and carpeted with a long oriental runner. It was wider than the other hall was, and she followed to the left, where it ended at a large pair of elaborately-carved wooden doors. She opened one, and slipped into an elegant dining room, where the fireplaces were roaring and the table was laid out with a feast. Naraku sat at one end in a fancy, plush chair. An identical one was placed to his right. Kagome went over and sat in it, nervously.

"Kagome, you look lovely," Naraku said with a smile. "Please, let's eat."

"S-shouldn't we say grace?" Kagome asked nervously. For some reason, she felt odd about eating the food set before her. She wasn't so hungry...

"M-must we?" Now Naraku sounded nervous.

"Yes." Kagome smiled back at him, an attempt at a reassuring smile. "Say it with me. Our Father..."

"Our Father," Naraku said, his voice a low hiss.

"Thank you for our meal," Kagome led on.

"T-thank y-you for our–meal," he puked the words, his face going green.

"Amen."

"Amen–AAAH!" Naraku's tongue burst into flames. Kagome screamed and threw a glassful of wine on his tongue, forgetting the combustibility of alcohol. However, the yelps of pain combined with the increase in smoke told her when water was necessary.

After the fire went out, Naraku stood up, tried to excuse himself (it must have been difficult with a burnt tongue) and left, leaving Kagome blinking confusedly and wondering what set his tongue on fire. She glanced sneakily at the candles standing on the table, but they weren't lit. She guessed it might've been a spark from the fireplace that landed on his wine-soaked tongue.

"This is a rather disturbing predicament," she ranted at a suit of armor in the hallway, only to scream and run away, terrified, when it tried to say its opinion.

"What have I gotten myself into?" she wondered, walking down the halls aimlessly. Sometimes she thought she saw Kouga out of the corner of her eye, or a strange person would walk by in the halls, not speaking a word, and disappear.

"Angels have freaky lives," Kagome shuddered.

- - - - -

"So," Inuyasha stared at the pentagram, "Who can speak Latin?" Neither Sango nor Kaede spoke up, but they didn't have to a strange figure came from behind them, a woman dressed in flowing dark robes, a bandana over her dark hair and great golden chains suspended around her neck.

"I can speak it," she said. "I speak Latin." Sango gasped.

"I-it's you!" she pointed. "The fortune-teller!"

"And theurgian," the woman said. "I am Lucerne Orleans, of Jerusalem."

"You people keep coming out of the woodwork too late!" Inuyasha barked. "Why are you here now?"

"I'm here," Lucerne said testily, "to open the Pentacle of Tetsusaiga."

"The-the..." Inuyasha sputtered, his face pale. "Tetsusaiga?"

"The sword your brother speaks of," nodded Kaede. "This woman was in the gypsy-carriage that passed yours on the way into town."

"Our goat fell off the roof," the gypsy said lamely. "We spent several days nursing him back to health in Leoben."

"A nice place, not far up down the river, I believe," Inuyasha said. "But it is to the east. We saw your carriage go west."

"We turned around," Lucerne said shortly. "My caravan has little time to be here; I only stopped in to town because Totosai sent me a message."

"Through your crystal ball?" Sango asked.

"No, through the pig's rectum." Silence. "OF COURSE THROUGH MY CRYSTAL BALL!"

"Just open the seal," Inuyasha said, pointing at the iron plate. Lucerne nodded, and walked to the center of the plate. She set a small glass ball in a small impression in the plate's center. Next, she placed a candle at each point of the pentacle. She stood to the side, and sprinkled salt in the grooves that were letters. She then read them. _"Yo aboleo malum. Yo aboleo Diabolus. Evigiles! Evigiles! Evigiles!_"

"I could've done that," muttered Kaede. Pale flames shot from the glass orb, traced their way along the grooves of the pentacle, lit the candles, and the salt in the words began to absorb into the metal. Sango and Inuyasha jumped back while Kaede stared, fascinated.

The pentacle of the plaque slid underneath the other edges and disappeared from sight. A single sword, on a platform that filled in the space for the pentacle, rose out of the ground. The sword was stuck inside a great dark stone, a stone that was clearly–

"The black pearl!" cried Inuyasha. "My father hid it before he died!"

"As he hid Tenseiga in the White Pearl," Lucerne said. "I knew your father well. As did the Amelia family. When he needed to hide the sword, they allowed him to use this ancient bane of evil. See, the plaque keeps many demons from coming into the house; save the most powerful of them. The plaque was laid down well before the vampire arose, because somebody in this family was superstitious. Thank goodness, you know!"

Lucerne looked at Sango. "You didn't do as I instructed; neither did Victoria...now she is damned, and you are on your way." Sango backed away from Lucerne, and walked away down the street.

"Wait!" Inuyasha called to her. "Where are you going?"

"I never buried my feelings for Shippo!" she shouted back. "There's a mound of bodies that need the respect of a proper burial..."

"She's going to the Graveyard of the Lost," Kaede murmured. "She's disregarding everything I said..."

Lucerne's dark eyes softened. "I think now... she's doing what she needs to do..."

Kaede glanced over at the fortune-teller. "I think she's doing the wrong thing for the rest of us..."

"But who is left?" Lucerne asked. "Who is left to save? All the people here are going to leave, even if they bury their love for those they lost. So many died, Kaede... The stench is ungodly..."

The nun sighed. "I myself cannot let them go..."

"So," Inuyasha said, grasping the sword's hilt. "This is Tetsusaiga... The Wolf's Fang and brother to Tenseiga..." He tried pulling the sword from the pearl, with great difficulty. "Ack! Stupid-piece-of-metal-won't-come-out!" He grunted the words in between yanks.

"It's made of pure silver," Kaede muttered, not really paying attention. "That sword also has a hilt wrapped in spell-bound tatters that keep the weapon sharp and deadly. It was forged by Totosai, back when he wasn't a priest, but a metal-worker. A mightily skilled man of his craft..."

"Ah," Inuyasha said after finally wrenching the blade free. "Nice... So, how do I kill a vampire?"

"Cut off his head and drive a stake through his heart. Then, cut out the heart and burn it... It's not so hard."

"It's just _doing _it that will kill you," Lucerne said seriously. She drew a long, slender, and sharpened stake from a pocket under her robes; its sides were elaborately carved with flowing patterns of leaves and crosses. "This is the stake of the Orleans family; it is made of Eucalypt, a tree from the land of Australia. The wood is especially dangerous to vampires. Considered sacred by some, it is the natural bane of the vampire, though only recently has this been discovered. It is even thought that the burning bush that spoke to Moses was a bushel of Eucalypt branches and twigs."

"Okay," Inuyasha took the stake from the woman's hand and waved it around, jabbed it in the air a few times, and spun it around his fingers. "I like the sword better..."

"Then give the steak to Sango, and you use the sword," Kaede said snippily. "You're both going to have to go to the castle... Otherwise, what chance have you? With only one person?"

Inuyasha didn't want to accept this point, but had to; what chance _would_ they have? He sighed, nodded, and went to find Sango. The street she ran down disappeared in a haze of heavy and bitingly cold fog that crept up from the river. The cathedral was barely visible in the gray shroud, and the broken walls of the convent house were difficult to discern. It didn't occur to him that he really didn't know where the graveyard was until he was three blocks east of the cathedral; but he kept walking. Eventually the street ended at a pari of high, wrought-iron gates that seemed to stand alone in the fog.

One door of the gate was slightly open. He pushed through it, and found himself staring at a barren field, dotted with the silhouettes of crosses that marked graves; they seemed to go on forever. He could tell he'd have trouble finding Sango... until after an hour of searching through the graves he found her, trying to shove a cross into the frozen dirt, tears streaming down her face. He frowned, the cross already set up next to her was labeled _Shippo Orlandus_ already. He softened when he saw how sad she was, how frustrated she was with trying to shove the cross into the earth.

"Sango?" he spoke her name softly, but she didn't look up. He could sense that she heard him, though.

"Go away, Inuyasha."

"Sango, who are you burying?"

She looked up at him, her eyes wide, tears frozen to her cheeks. "I don't know yet..."

Inuyasha's eyebrows raised in alarm. "You don't know?"

"I have to write down their name," she said shakily, "then I'll remember."

"Sango, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not. I'm in the Graveyard of the Lost. Everyone forgets about who they are burying when they are here; but I'll remember when I write their name on the grave... Could you get this cross in the ground? I can't seem to be able to do it..."

Inuyasha picked up the lightweight wooden cross and slammed it into the ground, where it stuck up light the other crosses.

"Write their name out now," Inuyasha said softly. Sango nodded, and grabbed a carving knife that was lying on the ground at her feet. Slowly, she carved into the cross the name _Victoria Orlandus_, and then dropped the knife, and prayed. Inuyasha watched as Sango got up, turned to him, and smiled.

"My memories of her, all the painful ones, are gone now."

"But-how..?"

"I don't know..." Sango whispered, looking around at the graves that stood like a silent army, all in rows. "It's just this place...it's so peaceful... We can go now."

Inuyasha followed Sango as she led the way out of the graveyard and into the street again.

End Of Chapter 13


	14. Kagura

Blood Of The Heart

Ariznglori

A/N: Sorry about the really long update, everyone. I decided to torture a few happy-go-lucky reviewers until I got one more; I'm just glad someone finally broke. You know who you are!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 14: Kagura

If ever he though it was easy, he didn't now. The small woodland that was walled in was like a maze, and not to mention overrun by strange beasts. Sesshomaru gave the vampire some credit; fear was ever in his heart now.

"But," said Sesshomaru softly to himself, "the ritual will fail, and you will have wasted years of planning for nothing…"

The woods stirred about him; Sesshomaru's bright eyes darted from corner to corner, scanning like a hawk. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It was so cold, and he felt lost.

He clenched the hilt of his sword tightly, prepared to face whatever lay in his path. He forced himself forward, step by step, ever aware of his growing distance from the gates.

"Still," he thought, "I am nowhere near the main gates to the castle. I must push onward." The howl of a wolf interrupted his thoughts. Sesshomaru was suddenly aware of one fact: he was the only living thing for miles. The forest stirred again. Flashes of a moving shadow taunted his sights. Sesshomaru moved quickly, knowing that going uphill was his only way of knowing that he was approaching his target.

More howling, and the barking of those demonic dogs; Sesshomaru picked up the pace. He had to get to a different area. This fear was too much. A mad dash, more wolves in pursuit, he could smell their breath and he knew they were right behind him. He dared not turn around. He would only fall to the mind games of the woods.

Suddenly he saw a great pair of bright red eyes, luminous in the darkness. Sesshomaru shivered. The eyes' owner was approaching. He feared them.

Drawing his sword, he came to a halt. The blade Tenseiga was luminous in the dark; the shadowy figures of dozens of wolves drew back, away from the circle of light the silver blade cast. But the eyes didn't move.

"Show yourself," Sesshomaru hissed through his teeth, barely able to speak from fear.

"Sesshomaru," said the familiar voice. "I've been waiting." Sesshomaru blinked at first in shock, and then rubbed his eyes. It couldn't be! But it was. There, in front of him, as regal and beautiful as ever, stood Kagura.

"My wife," whispered Sesshomaru, still in shock. It couldn't be her. It wouldn't be her! All these years of searching, of life-threatening journeys to the ends of the world, from Orient to America, Africa to the frigid north, and here she stood, in her father's home, waiting for him.

"Kagura," he breathed in happiness, and he smiled. He quite frankly couldn't stop smiling at the beautiful ruby-eyed woman who stood in front of him, her dress flowing white, her lips redder than roses. He was poignantly reminded of their wedding day in Augsburg. The feasting lasted for seven days and for seven nights everything was perfect. It was like living in a fairy tale. And here she was, just as beautiful as ever, no age upon her, looking as vigorous and youthful as the day they met.

"Sesshomaru, I've missed you," she said, her eyes full of innocence that made her look resplendent.

"And I you," he cooed, his heart soaring. The light she gave to him made him feel unstoppable; he could fly when he was with her.

"Come with me," Kagura said softly, her delicate white hand interlacing fingers with his own. "I must take you to the castle." A sudden shadow fell upon her the moment she uttered the words. Sesshomaru frowned slightly.

"Kagura, why-"

"My father's alive," she said gleefully. "He's alive and he's so happy. I have to take you to him."

"Kagura, your father died." She stopped, turned, and stared at him, her luminous eyes locking sights upon him. He felt as if she could see into his soul.

"He is back." She pulled him along through the dark woods, and they ran together for a good distance before stopping. She led him to a path, a dirt path that wound further up the mountain. "It isn't too far now," she said encouragingly, pulling him along.

"What?"

"The gate, my silly lover, the gate!" She was so happy. Sesshomaru was worried about her; she's never been so happy. But he couldn't leave her; not now. Not after all those years of loneliness and misery and neglect to his daughter and house and home.

It would not be in vain.

He ran faster, feeling as though they were frolicking as they had in their youth. Rising up the mountain, closer and closer to the source of her happiness. Then it hit him; that wasn't him.

He slowed, Kagura tugging on his hand still. "Sesshomaru, follow me."

"Kagura," said Sesshomaru sadly.

"Yes?" she said impatiently.

"Do I make you happy?"

Kagura paused, lips parted, her gaze softened as she stared at him. She rested her hand on his shoulder.

"You did make me happy."

Sesshomaru watched as Kagura raced up the remainder of the slope. With a sigh, he followed.

"Kagura please, slow down. I'm not as youthful as I once was." He watched her hurrying form slow down. She turned to face him. He was caught up again in her eyes. She regarded him coolly and with some mild interest.

"Men always want youth in their women, and women always want maturity in men. We have that now; follow me, Sesshomaru. I have met people here, wonderful friends to help us raise a baby."

She turned again but he caught her ivory hand. "Stay," he pleaded. "We have a baby; we have a daughter, Kagura. She's grown up without you for far too long. Come back home. Please." She turned around quickly and didn't look at him.

"Let go of my hand, Sesshomaru." He let her go. She regained her step and hurried up the path and the stair through the forest. He followed slowly, regretting ever having entered the grounds of Schloss Nachtigall.

The ground's slope leveled out and leveled out, and they found themselves at a second gate. It was open, unguarded, its rusted portcullis suspended over the portal like fangs over a mouth. To their left and right, paths to a great graveyard could be seen. Sesshomaru eyed the countless headstones with some shock and disgust. Kagura saw his face, and whispered.

"That is the Necropolis; the City of the Dead. Those are all the citizens of Heinrich for the past centuries. Some of the names are washed off the stones." Her wide red gaze forced itself into Sesshomaru's golden one.

"I know most of them," she whispered. "Some are my friends. None really rest here. It's holy to the point where the Dead can't stand it." She smiled ironically.

"This place is evil," Sesshomaru whispered.

"See that obelisk over there? That's my grave." Sesshomaru turned and looked at Kagura in horror. He backed away from her, step by slow step. She kept on grinning from ear to ear, and somehow Sesshomaru noticed the fangs, the inhuman pallid skin, the teeth tainted slightly red when she smiled, the eyes that were too wide, and the depths that held nothing.

"You're not Kagura."

The fake Kagura's smile faded, the eyes narrowed, the ears grew pointed and the fangs lengthened.

"No, I'm not."

"What are you?"

"Nothing you should concern yourself with."

"What are you?" he asked with more forcefulness.

"Are you deaf?"

"WHAT ARE YOU!"

"_I AM YOUR NIGHTMARE! I AM THE NOISE THAT KEEPS YOU FROM FALLING ASLEEP, I AM THE SHADOW WHISPERING IN THE CURTAINS, AND I AM YOU!" _The creature's skin peeled, or rather the Kagura costume fell off. What was left was a haunting distortion of Sesshomaru himself, laughing maniacally. But it wasn't the ancient and worn Sesshomaru of now. It was Sesshomaru when he married Kagura, when his hair was black, his eyes full of love, and his heart cleansed. But this was the darkness within.

"I am Doppelganger, the Demon of Shadows! I haunt every footstep on this earth, I know the longing in every worm's heart, I know the desires of spiders and flies, and I know the darkness in every man!" the demon laughed, molding and remolding itself into everyone Sesshomaru knew.

From his father and mother to his brother, his daughter, Kagome, Myoga, Leon and Victoria; every guise rose and fell in the rhythm of the demon's mocking laughter, and countless faces of people Sesshomaru barely recognized flew before him, each twisted form representative of that person's darkness.

And last it was Kagura again.

"So," said Kagura's sultry voice. "Sesshomaru, I could show you your own darkness, I can reveal the lusts and longings of your wife, and the love and hatred of your daughter, and I can do this for the whole world. I am the Angel of Identity, and I am the Demon of Desires. You asked, and now you know." And with that the demon disappeared in a whirlwind of laughter.

Sesshomaru was left, shaken and alone, in the forest. He breathed deeply, trying to calm himself down. He glanced at his surroundings. The wolves were gone, and the game was on.

The gate was still wide open. He walked under it, and the minute he was beyond it the portcullis fell down with a clang, and latched itself shut into a locked position. He looked ahead, and found himself staring at a wide array of plants, dead and alive, in a set of beautifully manicured formal gardens.

To the left and right were mazes of hedges, and straight ahead, at an intersection of paths, stood a beautiful fountain, at least twenty feet across. A large white marble statue was being soaked by the fountain. It was of a woman, constricted by a great cobra, and she held a small child high away from the snake's clutches.

It was ominous, ethereal, and moving. The image became ingrained in Sesshomaru's mind. "My Kagura would have loved this…" He gazed over the wide paths and flowerbeds. He could almost picture this place before the vampire came, before Kagura's father… A child's mischievous laughter rang in the air, a very real laugh, one that was of the village.

"Shippo…" He recognized the figures in the statue; the small child was Shippo and the woman was his mother. The snake had a laugh too, darker and more menacing.

"Naraku, you vain bastard," Sesshomaru whispered as he realized the snake's eyes were glittering red with rubies. "This is your life… This isn't your family." _Poor deluded bastard…_Sesshomaru couldn't help the thought. But a sharp voice rang through the air angrily.

"Sesshomaru, you taunting fool! Think no ills of me; I have more health in my hairs than you have in your whole body! You know my plans, and you want my daughter. Kagura will be yours if, and only if, you will join me."

"What?" Sesshomaru whispered. Naraku's voice rang through the air again.

"Pitiful fool that you think I am, eh? You have fallen helplessly into the trap of Schloss Nachtigall! Here you face more evils than me."

Sesshomaru looked around. The wolves were approaching him, and now that he could see them in the sullen moonlight he truly was afraid. These were no ordinary wolves stalking into the gardens. And, parting a great hedge that barred direct entrance to the castle, Kouga stalked forth, a sadistic smile playing on his lips.

"Sesshomaru," he growled lowly. "I have rooms waiting for you in the castle, where the deal can be drawn up, if you like. You'll be facing your brother's host again."

"What? Miroku's here?" Sesshomaru said suddenly. "I knew it! But you've…you've caught him…"

"He's waiting for my company," Kouga grinned. "A little bit of push and pull- or should I say rise and fall- in the relationship, but…things work out."

"A torture chamber…" Sesshomaru whispered, eyes wide as wolves formed a circle of no escape around him. Kouga leered at him.

"You will follow Kagura, yes? She went through the same thing."

"You…you killed my wife," Sesshomaru hissed. "It was _you_ this whole time."

"I don't like to brag," Kouga said.

"I can't believe my wife was killed by the village idiot."

"What?" Kouga blinked. "W-what did you just say to me?"

"You heard me," Sesshomaru smiled victoriously. "you're an idiot. Or should I say _the _idiot?"

"You'll come with me," Kouga glared sternly at Sesshomaru before grabbing him forcefully. "I didn't kill her on my own account. A servant does his master's wishes until the very end. Where would Rome be if Cassius hadn't ordered Pindarus to kill him?"

"I hate Shakespeare."

"We're off to the dungeon, you ass."

"Finally. I thought you'd never shut up."

They walked through the hedges, down a long and sorrowful path flanked by black roses, and entered the castle, passing under an angry three-headed dog.

"All the way from Hades," said Kouga impressively. "That beast was given to my master by the Devil himself."

"Your master in the Devil Incarnate."

"Not totally." They walked on, into the castle's main entrance, up a sweeping staircase, down a few halls, around a few corners, and up a few halls to a door that led to a darkened room.

They walked in and Kouga lit a torch. Sesshomaru gasped in horror as the broken, limp form of Miroku was illuminated, blood filling in the grooves in the stone floor. Kouga led Sesshomaru over to a great cast-iron shell in the shape of a woman. He opened the door to reveal hundreds of spikes of different lengths. Sesshomaru shuddered.

"This is my Iron Maiden. Step into her open arms and she'll give you quite a pinch." He thrust Sesshomaru backwards into the spikes and slammed the Iron Maiden shut.

The screaming lasted for thirty seconds as Sesshomaru's blood flowed onto the floor like fresh-squeezed lemon juice.

End of Chapter 14


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